Symantec says its merger with Veritas will not result in retrenchments in SA, nor the discontinuation of any products.
Lindsey Armstrong, senior vice-president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), says because there is so little overlap between Symantec and Veritas, "we are not faced with a choice of which products to kill".
Armstrong adds that the merger was based on scope, not scale, explaining that the objective was to bring together two companies that did not operate in the same space, increasing market presence and opportunities.
"With an acquisition based on scale (where a large company acquires a smaller company to increase its size), there is no cross-selling because of overlap. But with us there is no real overlap, which creates a great opportunity to sell."
Armstrong says research shows that only 28% of mergers outperform their goals. But frequent acquirers tend to be in that percentage and both Symantec and Veritas have a history of acquisitions and mergers.
She says mergers fail when targets are not achieved because the top line fails, future growth potential is impaired by talent and knowledge gaps, and anticipated synergies never materialise.
"Our focus is on growth, not making something smaller. Our goal is to make one and one more than two. The objective is to build something, not tear it down," she adds.
Redundancies
Although the merger will result in 1.5% redundancies in EMEA, this will not affect the South African office - now 40-strong - which is hiring staff. Regional director Patrick Evans says the office made two job offers this week.
Armstrong says the company will ensure that customers experience no disruption, with the group limiting go-to-market integration for the first 12 months. "This means that customers will experience no change," she says, adding that customers will still have contact with the same sales teams.
For the next six months, the group is working on product interoperability, while work on integration of synergistic systems will begin in six months.
On the distribution front, Evans says Symantec has 14 distributorships in Africa, while Veritas has seven master resellers.
He says there will be some consolidation there. There are some legacy Symantec distributors in certain areas that are not generating revenue, or showing no growth. "If there is a Veritas distributor doing better in that area, we will look at going with that," he adds.
However, the group is sticking to its channel integrity. "We won't change the way we come to market."
Symantec last night released its first quarter results, with revenue of $700 million up from $557 million a year earlier. Net income rose to $199 million ($0.27 a share) from $117 million ($0.16 a share) previously.
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