Symantec to cut more than 1,000 jobs following fall in enterprise security sales

Symantec's enterprise sales fell by 14 per cent in the first quarter due to longer sales cycles, according to CEO Greg Clark

Symantec is to cut its workforce of 13,000 by eight per cent following a fall in enterprise security software sales.

The news was revealed overnight as the company released its first quarter results for its 2019 fiscal year.

CEO Greg Clark explained the disappointing results by suggesting that enterprise billings, in particular, were lower than expected due to longer sales cycles. Enterprise sales, noted TechMarketView analyst Martin Courtney, fell by 14 per cent in the first quarter to $556 million, a fall masked by rising consumer sales which increased 13 per cent to $600 million.

Overall, the company reported first quarter revenues down from $1.18 billion to $1.16 billion, while the fiscal first-quarter net loss weighed in at $63 million compared to a net loss of $133 million in the same quarter a year earlier.

The company is also conducting an internal investigation into its accounting practices, announced in May

Symantec also reduced its revenue forecasts for the year, implying that there is more to the company's disappointing results than customers simply taking a bit longer to make up their mind. Its revenue forecasts have been cut from between $4.76 billion and $4.90 billion, to between $4.67 billion and $4.79 billion for the year to the end of March 2019.

The company is also conducting an internal investigation into its accounting practices, announced in May, which will also put its most recent financial filings under the microscope.

In response, the company said that it would cut its workforce by eight per cent, which it claimed would cut annual costs by $115 million. "We expect that these actions will partially benefit fiscal year 2019 operating margins and will have full effect to fiscal year 2020," chief financial officer Nick Noviello told analysts in a conference call.

On a day in which Apple nudged past the $1 trillion valuation mark, Symantec's stock price rapidly headed in the opposite direction, falling 12 per cent in response. That follows, though, a much bigger fall in May when the company revealed the internal investigation into its accounting practices.