Symantec 2011 Annual Report Download - page 80

We provide customers various levels of enterprise support offerings. Our enterprise security support program
offers annual maintenance support contracts, including content, upgrades, and technical support. Our standard
technical support includes: self-service options, delivered by telephone or electronically, during the contracted-for
hours, immediate patches for severe problems; periodic software updates; and access to our technical knowledge
base and frequently asked questions.
Customers
In fiscal 2011 and 2010 one distributor, Ingram Micro, accounted for 10% of our total net revenue in both
periods. Our distributor arrangements with Ingram Micro consist of several non-exclusive, independently nego-
tiated agreements with its subsidiaries, each of which cover different countries or regions. Each of these agreements
is separately negotiated and is independent of any other contract (such as a master distribution agreement), and these
agreements are not based on the same form of contract. In fiscal 2009 one reseller, Digital River, accounted for 10%
of our total net revenue. In fiscal 2010, we launched an internally-developed eCommerce platform which has
reduced our reliance on Digital River.
Acquisitions
Our acquisitions are designed to enhance the features and functionality of our existing products and extend our
product leadership in core markets. We consider time to market, synergies with existing products, and potential
market share gains when evaluating the economics of acquisitions of technologies, product lines, or companies. We
may acquire and/or dispose of other technologies, products and companies in the future.
During fiscal 2011, we completed the following significant acquisitions:
Company Name Company Description Date Acquired
VeriSign, Inc. (identity and authentication
business assets) Identity and authentication business assets purchase August 9, 2010
PGP Corporation A nonpublic provider of email and data
encryption software June 4, 2010
GuardianEdge Technologies, Inc. A nonpublic provider of email and data
encryption software June 3, 2010
For further discussion of our acquisitions, see Note 3 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements in this
annual report.
Competition
Our markets are consolidating, highly competitive, and subject to rapid changes in technology. We are focused
on integration across the product portfolio and are including next-generation technology capabilities into our
solution set to differentiate ourselves from the competition. We believe that the principal competitive factors
necessary to be successful in our industry include time to market, price, reputation, financial stability, breadth of
product offerings, customer support, brand recognition, and effective sales and marketing efforts.
In addition to the competition we face from direct competitors, we face indirect or potential competition from
retailers, application providers, operating system providers, network equipment manufacturers, and other OEMs,
who may provide various solutions and functions in their current and future products. We also compete for access to
retail distribution channels and for spending at the retail level and in corporate accounts. In addition, we compete
with other software companies, operating system providers, network equipment manufacturers and other OEMs to
acquire technologies, products, or companies and to publish software developed by third parties. We also compete
with other software companies in our effort to place our products on the computer equipment sold to consumers and
enterprises by OEMs.
The competitive environments in which each segment operates are described below.
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