Symantec Kiwi profits not so great
Symantec New Zealand reported reduced revenue and profit for the financial year ending 28 March 2014, with profit down to $360,081 on revenue of $4.6 million.
A year earlier the security, backup and availability company had reported profit of $402,375 on revenue of $5.1 million. The cost of wages and salaries for the year was down from $3.1 million to $2.5 million.
Last week the parent company announced its Q3 2015 results, reporting revenue of $1.6 billion, down 4% year on year. Net income was down 22% to $222 million.
Earlier this week the company was ordered to pay up US$17 million after losing a court case brought against it by Intellectual Ventures – the self proclaimed world's largest buyer of patents. Intellectual Ventures had sought $298 million for patent infringement. Symantec was found guilty on two counts.
The company has already settled claims with Check Point and Intel's McAfee division, and is heading to court against Trend Micro over the same patents.
For Symantec, patents are currently big news. Last week Veeam announced the first patent litigation Symantec brought against it in February 2012 had ended 'with a resounding victory for Veeam'.
Veeam says it forced Symantec to dismiss the asserted claims or obtained rulings that the asserted patent claims were invalid in each of the four instances.
In October, Symantec announced that it is splitting in two, with one company, continuing the Symantec name, focusing on security, and the other, to be named Veritas, focused on information management.
Michael Brown, Symantec CEO and president, said of the split: "It has become clear that winning in both security and information management requires distinct strategies, focused investments and go-to-market innovation.
"Separating Symantec into two, independent publicly traded companies will provide each business the flexibility and focus to drive growth and enhance shareholder value.
That spinoff is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Meanwhile, locally, the company announced the departure of ANZ managing director Brenton Smith earlier this year.
