Symantec 2008 Annual Report Download - page 93

In addition to the competition we face from direct competitors, we face indirect or potential competition from
retail, application providers, operating system providers, network equipment manufacturers, and other OEMs, who
may provide various solutions and functions in their current and future products. We also compete for access to
retail distribution channels and for the attention of customers at the retail level and in corporate accounts. In
addition, we compete with other software companies, operating system providers, network equipment manufac-
turers and other OEMs to acquire technologies, products, or companies and to publish software developed by third
parties. We also compete with other software companies in our effort to place our products on the computer
equipment sold to consumers by OEMs.
The competitive environments in which each segment operates are described below.
Consumer Products
Some of the channels in which our consumer products are offered are highly competitive. Our competitors are
sometimes intensely focused on customer acquisition, which has led such competitors to offer their technology for
free, engage in aggressive marketing, or enter into competitive partnerships.
Our primary competitors in the Consumer Products segment are McAfee, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, and
Trend Micro Inc. There are also several smaller regional security companies that we compete against primarily in
the EMEA and APJ regions.
Security and Compliance
In the security and compliance markets, we compete against many companies that offer competing products to
our technology solutions and competing services to our response and support services. Our primary competitors in
the security market are Cisco Systems, Inc., McAfee, Microsoft, and Trend Micro. There are also several smaller
regional security companies that we compete against primarily in the EMEA and APJ regions.
Storage and Server Management
The markets for storage and server management are intensely competitive. In the areas of data protection and
storage and server management, our primary competitors are CA Inc., CommVault Systems, Inc., EMC, Inc.,
Hewlett-Packard Co., IBM Corp., Microsoft, Oracle Corp., and Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Services
We believe that the principal competitive factors for our services segment include technical capability,
customer responsiveness, and our ability to hire and retain talented and experienced services personnel. Our
primary competitors in the services segment are EMC, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and regional specialized consulting
firms. In the managed security services business, our primary competitors are IBM and VeriSign, Inc.
Intellectual Property
Protective Measures
We regard some of the features of our internal operations, software, and documentation as proprietary and rely
on copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret laws, confidentiality procedures, contractual arrangements, and
other measures to protect our proprietary information. Our intellectual property is an important and valuable asset
that enables us to gain recognition for our products, services, and technology and enhance our competitive position.
As part of our confidentiality procedures, we generally enter into non-disclosure agreements with our
employees, distributors, and corporate partners, and we enter into license agreements with respect to our software,
documentation, and other proprietary information. These license agreements are generally non-transferable and
have a perpetual term. We also educate our employees on trade secret protection and employ measures to protect our
facilities, equipment, and networks.
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