Symantec CEO Salem Is Out As Q1 Profits Fall

Chairman Steve Bennett has been named CEO and president of the security software vendor and will retain the chairman position. Bennett joined Symantec's board in February 2010 and became chairman in 2011.

He previously served as CEO of Intuit from 2000 to 2007.

"Enrique Salem has been a significant contributor during his 19 years associated with Symantec, including the last three years as CEO," Bennett said in a statement. "While progress has been made over the last three years in many areas, it was the board's judgment that it was in the best interests of Symantec to make a change in the CEO.

"My view is that Symantec's assets are strong and yet the company is underperforming against the opportunity," Bennett said. "I'm looking forward to working with the team to build upon the significant assets in place to help Symantec accelerate value creation for all of its stakeholders."

For the company's first fiscal quarter ended June 29 Symantec reported revenue of $1.7 billion, up 1 percent year-over-year. But profit fell 9.9 percent to $172 million from $191 million one year earlier.

"We delivered record June quarter revenue and deferred revenue, as well as growth in earnings per share despite an 11 percent foreign currency headwind," said James Beer, Symantec executive vice president and chief financial officer, in a statement. "We saw strength in endpoint protection, consumer security, authentication services, data loss prevention, and backup appliances."

Symantec is forecasting sales for the current (second) fiscal quarter ending Sept. 28 to be between $1.635 and $1.665 billion.

The company was originally scheduled to report the quarterly results today after the close of the stock markets.

PUBLISHED JULY 25, 2012