Symantec 2009 Annual Report Download - page 70

For further discussion of our acquisitions, see Note 5 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this
annual report.
Competition
Our markets are consolidating, highly competitive, and subject to rapid changes in technology. We are focused
on integrating next generation technology capabilities into our solution set in order to differentiate ourselves from
the competition. We believe that the principal competitive factors necessary to be successful in our industry also
include, time to market, price, reputation, financial stability, breadth of product offerings, customer support, brand
recognition, and effective sales and marketing efforts.
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
Some of the channels in which our consumer products are offered are highly competitive. Our competitors are
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 segment
are Kaspersky Lab, McAfee, Inc. (“McAfee”), Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”), and Trend Micro Inc. (“Trend
Micro”). There are also several smaller regional security companies that we compete against primarily in the EMEA
and APJ regions. For our consumer backup offerings, our primary competitors are Mozy, Inc. (“Mozy”), acquired
by EMC Corporation, and Carbonite, Inc.
Security and Compliance
In the security and management markets, we compete against many companies that offer competing products
to our technology solutions. Our primary competitors in the security and management market are LANDesk
Software, 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 backup are intensely competitive. Our primary competitors are CA, Inc.,
CommVault Systems, Inc., EMC Corporation (“EMC”), Hewlett-Packard Company (“HP”), IBM Corp. (“IBM”),
Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, Inc., and VMware, 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, HP, IBM, and regional specialized consulting firms. In the
managed security services business, our primary competitors are IBM, SecureWorks, Inc., and VeriSign, Inc.
In the SaaS business, which includes the MessageLabs offerings, our primary competitors are Postini, acquired
by Google, Inc., and Mozy.
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