Symantec Exec Touts Potential Of Veritas Merger To VARs

In an e-mail addressed "Dear Valued Partner," a copy of which was obtained by CRN, Tom Kendra, senior vice president of worldwide sales for Symantec, said the merger will bring together the world's leading storage and security management software companies.

The result, Kendra said, will be "a combined ability to provide customers with a comprehensive set of security, storage, availability and performance solutions, and complementary services."

Kendra thanked Symantec partners for their support, and noted that in the last quarter, Veritas sales grew 15 percent and Symantec 28 percent year-over-year, showing that customers "continue to be excited about the proposed merger."

Planning for the post-merger company is moving ahead, according to Kendra. "Our integration teams have been working around the clock to ensure a seamless transition for you and your customers on the day the merger closes and beyond. We have our most talented and experienced people leading these efforts, focused on utilizing the best practices from both organizations and within the industry for your benefit and ours," he wrote.

Kendra wrote that the closing of the merger will mean Symantec partners will have opportunities to expand their business across a wide range of new markets. "I'm excited about what this new organization will provide you and our joint customers. You will be able to provide solutions and services from the industry leader in security, vulnerability management and policy compliance, secure content management, Windows and UNIX data protection, storage management, storage software and e-mail archiving."

One joint Symantec/Veritas solution provider who received the e-mail said that the key to making the merger work lies in how the two companies integrate their sales teams.

Veritas, for instance, did a poor job of integrating the team it got with its 2003 acquisition of application performance management software vendor Precise Software, the solution provider said.

"They couldn't get the storage salespeople to sell the application monitoring software. Now they will have security salespeople selling storage, and storage salespeople selling security. In this day and age, it's hard to find good salespeople. They're used to selling point products, and are resistant to change. So the question is, will Symantec/Veritas try to cross-pollinate their sales? It will be interesting to see how they do it."