Symantec 2014 Annual Report Download - page 98

• Requirements of foreign laws and other governmental controls, including trade and labor restrictions
and related laws that reduce the flexibility of our business operations
• Regulations or restrictions on the use, import, or export of encryption technologies that could delay or
prevent the acceptance and use of encryption products and public networks for secure communications
• Local business and cultural factors that differ from our normal standards and practices, including
business practices that we are prohibited from engaging in by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and
other anti-corruption laws and regulations
• Central bank and other restrictions on our ability to repatriate cash from our international subsidiaries
or to exchange cash in international subsidiaries into cash available for use in the U.S.
• Fluctuations in currency exchange rates, economic instability and inflationary conditions could reduce
our customers’ ability to obtain financing for software products or that could make our products more
expensive or could increase our costs of doing business in certain countries
• Limitations on future growth or inability to maintain current levels of revenues from international sales
if we do not invest sufficiently in our international operations
• Longer payment cycles for sales in foreign countries and difficulties in collecting accounts receivable
• Difficulties in staffing, managing, and operating our international operations, including difficulties
related to administering our stock plans in some foreign countries
• Difficulties in coordinating the activities of our geographically dispersed and culturally diverse
operations
• Seasonal reductions in business activity in the summer months in Europe and in other periods in other
countries
• Costs and delays associated with developing software and providing support in multiple languages
• Political unrest, war, or terrorism, or regional natural disasters, particularly in areas in which we have
facilities
A significant portion of our transactions outside of the U.S. are denominated in foreign currencies. Accordingly,
our revenues and expenses will continue to be subject to fluctuations in foreign currency rates. We expect to be
affected by fluctuations in foreign currency rates in the future, especially if international sales continue to grow
as a percentage of our total sales or our operations outside the United States continue to increase.
The level of corporate tax from sales to our non-U.S. customers is generally less than the level of tax from sales
to our U.S. customers. This benefit is contingent upon existing tax regulations in the U.S. and in the countries in
which our international operations are located. Future changes in domestic or international tax regulations could
adversely affect our ability to continue to realize these tax benefits.
Our products are complex and operate in a wide variety of environments, systems, applications and
configurations, which could result in errors or product failures.
Because we offer very complex products, undetected errors, failures, or bugs may occur, especially when
products are first introduced or when new versions are released. Our products are often installed and used in
large-scale computing environments with different operating systems, system management software, and
equipment and networking configurations, which may cause errors or failures in our products or may expose
undetected errors, failures, or bugs in our products. Our customers’ computing environments are often
characterized by a wide variety of standard and non-standard configurations that make pre-release testing for
programming or compatibility errors very difficult and time-consuming. In addition, despite testing by us and
others, errors, failures, or bugs may not be found in new products or releases until after commencement of
commercial shipments. In the past, we have discovered software errors, failures, and bugs in certain of our
product offerings after their introduction and, in some cases, have experienced delayed or lost revenues as a
result of these errors.
Errors, failures, or bugs in products released by us could result in negative publicity, damage to our brand,
product returns, loss of or delay in market acceptance of our products, loss of competitive position, or claims by
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