Symantec 2016 Annual Report Download - page 4

Dear Fellow Shareholders:
Fiscal year 2016 began a new era for Symantec. After completing the sale of Veritas and the
acquisition of Blue Coat, we are now the world’s leading pure-play cybersecurity company protecting
consumers, enterprises, and governments from an increasingly dangerous cyber threat environment.
Below are some updates at Symantec that we would like to highlight for our shareholders:
Completed the Sale of Veritas and Returned Significant Cash to Shareholders: In February, we
completed the divestiture of Veritas and received approximately $5.3 billion in after-tax cash proceeds.
Our management team and Board believe proper capital allocation is key to maximizing long-term
shareholder value, and we have demonstrated this with a consistent track record of returning capital
through dividends and share buy backs. In fiscal year 2016, the Board declared and paid a special dividend
of $4.00 per share (equaling approximately $2.7 billion), returned $1.9 billion through share buy backs,
and continued to pay a quarterly dividend of 7.5¢ per share.
Acquisition of Blue Coat and Appointment of Greg Clark as CEO: On August 1, 2016, we
completed the acquisition of Blue Coat for approximately $4.65 billion. Blue Coat is the leader in cloud
security with number one market share in the secure web gateway segment. In its last fiscal year, ended
April 30th, Blue Coat generated $755 million in non-GAAP revenue, growing 14% year-over-year.
Following the close of the transaction, we appointed Greg Clark as CEO of Symantec. Greg, formerly the
CEO of Blue Coat, brings significant leadership experience, deep security expertise, a long history of
successful acquisition integrations, and a proven track record of delivering profitable growth at scale. We
believe he is the right person to lead Symantec as we advance our position as the leader in cybersecurity.
Defining the Future of Cybersecurity: With Blue Coat, we believe we can help solve today’s biggest
security challenges, including: (1) securing enterprises, governments, and consumers from advanced attacks,
(2) protecting the mobile workforce that resides outside the network firewall, accessing cloud services and
corporate data directly from a variety of devices, and (3) helping customers securely embrace the cloud as
they increase the use of cloud-based applications and services. Combined, our product portfolio distinguishes
us as one of the most strategic security players in the industry, with a portfolio of solutions that we estimate
addresses over 50 percent of enterprise security budgets, or an approximately $40 billion of total
addressable market.
Strategic Investment by Silver Lake Partners and Bain Capital: During fiscal 2016 and 2017, Silver
Lake Partners and Bain Capital made strategic investments in Symantec totaling $1.75 billion in the form
of convertible notes. We believe this is a strong vote of confidence in both our transformation as well as
our future as the world leader in cybersecurity. We also announced that Ken Hao, managing partner and
managing director of Silver Lake and David Humphrey, managing director of Bain and member of the
board of directors of Blue Coat joined our Board. We are excited to have both contributing their deep
expertise in technology and track record of creating value.
Leadership in Corporate Responsibility: We announced an ambitious environmental goal in fiscal
2016, pledging to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2025. We confirmed our focus on
diversity and inclusion, and continued our investment in the Symantec Cyber Career Connection (SC3) to
help close the cyber security workforce gap while creating meaningful career paths for underrepresented
young adults and veterans. Symantec remains committed to leading with strong values and to making the
world a better and safer place.