Symantec Goes to M&A Rehab
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The security software giant says it will forgo megadeals.
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(InfoWorld) - Symantec Corp. has filed suit against an alleged software piracy ring, that has been in operation in North America since late 2003, the software vendor claims. The lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles seeks more than US$15 million in damages from a network of U.S. and Canadian businesses that are alleged to have sold counterfeit versions of Symantec's products, including Norton AntiVirus, pcAnywhere and Veritas Backup Exec. These companies and their affiliates run a global counterfeit organization that focuses on the U.S. and Canada, Symantec said. The businesses, which operated under eight different names, including Sili Inc., Advanced Sales Productivity Solutions Inc. and GT Micro, used spam and online advertising to offer Symantec's software at cut-rate prices, said Cris Paden, a Symantec spokesman. Customers who paid for the software would then be sent disks with Symantec's logo, wrapped in plain white sleeves. The disks, which came without documentation, would not install or work properly and could also include malicious software that would then be used to steal sensitive information from the purchaser's computer, Paden said. Symantec began investigating the matter in early 2004, when it started receiving complaints from customers who had bought the bad software, Paden added. "The people who bought these disks thinking they were from Symantec would come to our customer service," he said. One of the Sili Web sites named in Symantec's complaint, Sle-business.com, http://www.sle-business.com/Product%20List.htm Norton AntiVirus 2006. That product typically sells for about $20. Sle-business.com's Web site also offers software from McAfee Inc., Intuit Inc., Corel Corp. and Webroot Software Inc., among others. Sili representatives could not be reached immediately for comment. Symantec has worked with police to seize more than 100,000 copies of counterfeit disks, but Paden did not know if criminal charges would be forthcoming in the case. "We are working with law enforcement," he said. "I can't tell you who because if I did that would tip our hands to the extent of our investigation." Like many other vendors, Symantec has become more aggressive in its fight against unauthorized copying. In 2002, Symantec was losing about $500 million per year to software piracy, but it has now reduced those losses to less than $50 million per year, he said. Customers who are worried that they may be buying phony software online should make sure they are actually giving their credit-card information over a secure Web site, Paden said. That means that when they are asked to enter a credit-card number, the Web address should begin with https://, and there should be a locked padlock displayed near the address to indicate that the browser is visiting a secure site. "That's the smoking gun as to whether you're dealing with a legitimate outfit or not," Paden said. "99 percent of the time these guys don't use this."ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Security software vendor Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) is negotiating to buy Veritas Software (Nasdaq: VRTS), a provider of data storage software, for more than US&#36;13 billion, according to press reports.
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(InfoWorld) - Symantec declared itsÂ compensation offerÂ for Chinese users who saw their computers damaged by a bad software update a success Sunday, but declined to say how many users had accepted the deal. Symantec ran into trouble May 18, when the company issued a faulty software update for its Norton antivirus software that wrongly identified two system files in the Simplified Chinese edition of Windows XP as malware, and quarantined them. That blunder rendered an estimated 50,000 Chinese PCs unusable, Symantec said. The incident also provoked an angry outcry from Chinese users, who demanded compensation for the damage wrought on their systems by Symantec. At least two users filed lawsuits against Symantec over damage done to their PCs by the company. Five weeks after the bad update was released, Symantec offered free software to those Chinese users who were affected. The company offered Chinese consumers a 12-month Norton license extension and a copy of Norton Save & Restore 2.0. Corporate customers were offered Symantec Ghost Solution Suite licenses, depending on the number of PCs affected. Symantec did not extend Norton licenses for corporate customers affected by the bad update. The compensation offer, which was valid for two and a half weeks starting from June 27, ended Sunday night. However, the Web site created for users to apply for compensation remained up at the time of writing, on Monday morning. In an e-mail statement sent Sunday, Symantec declared the offer a success, saying the gesture had been "well received." But the company did not offer any information to back up that claim. Symantec's offer was widely criticizedÂ in the Chinese press when it was first announced. "Symantec's response to its Chinese consumers lacks seriousness and sincerity," Alamus, the deputy director of the China Electronic Commerce Association's committee on legal and policy issues, said at that time in a report by China Central Television (CCTV), the country's national TV broadcaster. While Symantec's compensation offer officially ended Sunday, the company is keeping the door open for users who missed the July 15 deadline. "After this date anyone who missed the registration date should contact Symantec Customer Support or email symantec.authorised.support.cn@clts.com and we will give consideration to extending the date for that individual customer," the company said. Â
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The Motley Fool - Shortly after we came back from our big vacation overseas in May, my Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL - News) PowerBook was hit with a computer virus. I can't tell you which one, but it was enough to cripple my Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - News) Office for the Mac software. Symantec's (Nasdaq: SYMC - News) Norton Anti-Virus found the bug, and then eradicated it by exterminating my entire in-box. (Thanks, guys.)
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Symantec has signed an agreement to acquire @stake, a security consulting and software company, Symantec said Thursday. @stake will improve Symantec&#39;s consulting contacts--six of the top 10 financial institutions are customers, Symantec said.
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Symantec Corp.'s reported interest in acquiring Veritas Software Corp. for more than $13 billion would represent the computer security giant's biggest step yet beyond its core businesses of defending against viruses and thwarting hackers. Investors weren't impressed, though, and Symantec's shares plunged 16 percent.
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Symantec (SYMC:Nasdaq - news - research) Thursday said it will acquire rival software company Veritas Software (VRTS:Nasdaq - news - research)in an all-stock deal.
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- Security software maker Symantec Corp.   said it sued a large network of distributors selling  counterfeit Symantec software, and sought over $15 million in  damages.
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(InfoWorld) - Symantec Chairman and CEO John Thompson blamed Microsoft on Tuesday for the current pricing competition his company faces in the consumer security market, suggesting Microsoft's pricing scheme for its first entry into the space is "monopolistic." Speaking at the offices of the Nasdaq stock exchange in New York, Thompson said Microsoft's decision last year to offerÂ Windows Live OneCare, a service that combines firewall, antiviru,s and backup capabilities, for $49.95 per year for three PCs "clearly recast prior expectations for consumer security technology." "I don't want to say it was monopolistic, but it looked that way to some of us," Thompson said. Symantec released Norton 360, its competitor to Windows Live OneCare, last March, but the product -- at $79.99 for three PCs -- costs more than Windows Live OneCare but has the benefit of more features and Symantec's experience in security going for it. Using competitive pricing to try to get a leg up in a market where a company is weak is a common practice, and Symantec is no stranger to such pricing storms, Thompson said. "We have seen a continued focus on price competition in some markets and some channels," he said. To say Microsoft has a long way to go before it can compete with the breadth of products Symantec has in the consumer and enterprise spaces is an understatement. Microsoft executives have acknowledged that the company took its time in realizing the importance of security, but they are now determined to give Symantec and McAfee a run for their money with offerings like OneCare and the Forefront security line. Still, there is wide agreement that any serious heat from Microsoft in security is several years off, if not more. Thompson said Tuesday that his company is well-prepared to evolve with the industry and new competitors. As part of this evolution, Symantec plans to unveil its first software-as-a-service option this year, a backup service for SMBs called the Symantec Protection Network. That service will be rolled out in conjunction with the next version of its Backup Exec software. "We've reinvented ourselves in the past, and we'll probably reinvent ourselves if not one more time than at least two more times" to keep up with industry changes, Thompson said.
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The security software company continues to piece together its turnaround.
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Computer security giant Symantec Corp. is buying storage and backup program specialist Veritas Software Corp. to create the world's fourth-largest software maker, marking the latest merger in an industry trend that's expected to compress the competition to a few juggernauts.
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A month after Symantec knocked out 50,000 Chinese PCs with bad software, the company is offering compensation.
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A muscular appliance Red Hat last week continued its appliance assault via a partnership with Symantec.â¦
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Tick, tick, tick, tick... oh A former sys admin at Medco Health Solutions, a US prescription management and health information firm, has been jailed for 30 months over a failed attempt to destroy its systems using a "logic bomb" computer virus.â¦
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Merger mania found its way back into the software space today, asvsecurity firm Symantec said it would pay US$13.5 billion to acquire Veritas Software.
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In an effort to include storage within its empire of security products, Symantec Corp. announced Tuesday that it is going after the backup market with live state recovery