Symantec 2008 Annual Report Download - page 4

FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
In Fiscal 2008, we achieved both record revenue and earnings per share. Non-GAAP revenue
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grew 13% to more than $5.93 billion, generating non-GAAP earnings per share
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of $1.27. Non-
GAAP deferred revenue
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grew 12% to nearly $3.1 billion and we generated cash flow from
operating activities of $1.8 billion, up 9% compared to Fiscal 2007. Given the recurring nature of
our business model, deferred revenue and cash flow from operations are important metrics in
measuring the overall strength of our business.
During the year, we continued to demonstrate our commitment to creating shareholder value by
repurchasing a total of $1.5 billion of our common stock.
WELL POSITIONED FOR FISCAL 2009
We entered the new fiscal year with a strong sales pipeline and we are well positioned for continued
success. During this fiscal year we intend to leverage our core strengths in security, storage, and data
protection to accelerate growth in high potential areas, up sell new functionalities and drive
incremental business. Specifically, we plan to grow our core business franchises at or above market
growth rates to continue fueling our cash flow, scale our high-growth businesses to contribute
materially to our top-line revenue growth, and seed emerging growth to keep us relevant in the long
run. In addition, we plan to exceed market growth rates in the fastest growing international markets
and use mergers and acquisitions to complement our product portfolio growth.
Several areas of focus this fiscal year should further strengthen our operating returns:
• We plan a number of key product introductions during the year, building upon our rich portfolio
of products and services.
• We will leverage the new technologies and businesses we have successfully acquired across
our portfolio.
• We are refocusing our spending toward higher growth areas while we continue to improve
operating returns. We will capitalize on emerging industry growth trends such as data loss
prevention, endpoint virtualization, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and consumer services.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP). Our acquisition of Vontu expanded Symantec’s presence in the
rapidly growing data loss prevention market and provided us with clear market leadership and
product functionality at all tiers: the network, storage and endpoint, all managed from a central
console. To complement our DLP capability, Symantec is partnering with Guardian Edge to
deliver proven endpoint encryption products. Both DLP and endpoint encryption are key com-
ponents in helping customers protect valuable information that resides on laptops and desktops.
We see excellent opportunities to broaden the distribution of our DLP and encryption products,
particularly in international markets, and to integrate these capabilities with several of our key
products including mail security and archiving.
Endpoint Virtualization. New technologies, like virtualization, are evolving to enable more
efficient management and flexible use of servers and endpoints. Symantec’s application
virtualization technology is changing the way software is managed, delivered and consumed
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Non-GAAP results are reconciled to GAAP results on page 5.