Symantec 2016 Annual Report Download - page 102

prices or offer other favorable terms in order to compete successfully. Any such changes may reduce margins and
could adversely affect operating results. Additionally, the increasing prevalence of cloud and SaaS delivery
models offered by us and our competitors may unfavorably impact pricing in both our on-premise enterprise
software business and our cloud business, as well as overall demand for our on-premise software product and
service offerings, which could reduce our revenues and profitability. Our competitors may offer lower pricing on
their support offerings, which could put pressure on us to further discount our product or support pricing.
Any broad-based change to our prices and pricing policies could cause our revenues to decline or be delayed as
our sales force implements and our customers adjust to the new pricing policies. Some of our competitors may
bundle products for promotional purposes or as a long-term pricing strategy or provide guarantees of prices and
product implementations. These practices could, over time, significantly constrain the prices that we can charge
for certain of our products. If we do not adapt our pricing models to reflect changes in customer use of our
products or changes in customer demand, our revenues could decrease. The increase in open source software
distribution may also cause us to change our pricing models.
Defects, disruptions or risks related to the provision of our SaaS offerings could impair our ability to deliver
our services and could expose us to liability, damage our brand and reputation or otherwise negatively impact
our business.
Our SaaS offerings may contain errors or defects that users identify after they begin using them that could result
in unanticipated service interruptions, which could harm our reputation and our business. Since our customers
use our SaaS offerings for mission-critical protection from threats to electronic information, endpoint devices,
and computer networks, any errors, defects, disruptions in service or other performance problems with our SaaS
offerings could significantly harm our reputation and may damage our customers’ businesses. If that occurs,
customers could elect not to renew, or delay or withhold payment to us, we could lose future sales or customers
may make warranty or other claims against us, which could result in an increase in our provision for doubtful
accounts, an increase in collection cycles for accounts receivable or the expense and risk of litigation.
We currently serve our SaaS-based customers from hosting facilities located across the globe. Damage to, or
failure of, any significant element of these hosting facilities could result in interruptions in our service, which
could harm our customers and expose us to liability. Interruptions or failures in our service delivery could cause
customers to terminate their subscriptions with us, could adversely affect our renewal rates, and could harm our
ability to attract new customers. Our business would also be harmed if our customers believe that our SaaS
offerings are unreliable.
We collect, use, disclose, store or otherwise process personal information, which subjects us to privacy and
data security laws and contractual commitments, and our actual or perceived failure to comply with such laws
and commitments could harm our business.
The personal information we collect, use, store or disclose (collectively, “Process”), including from employees
and customers, is subject to an increasing number of federal, state, local and foreign laws regarding privacy and
data security, as well as contractual commitments. Any failure or perceived failure by us to comply with such
obligations may result in governmental enforcement actions, fines, litigation, or public statements against us by
consumer advocacy groups or others and could cause our customers to lose trust in us, which could have an
adverse effect on our reputation and business. Our customers may also accidentally disclose their passwords or
store them on a device that is lost or stolen, creating the perception that our systems are not secure against third-
party access. Additionally, if third parties that we work with, such as vendors or developers, violate applicable
laws or our policies, such violations may also place personal information at risk and have an adverse effect on
our business. Changes to applicable privacy or data security laws could impact how we Process personal
information, and therefore limit the effectiveness of our products, services or features, or our ability to develop
new products, services or features.
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