Symantec 2013 Annual Report Download - page 118

2020, and 2022. In addition, we have entered into a credit facility with a borrowing capacity of $1 billion. From
time to time in the future, we may also incur indebtedness in addition to the amount available under our credit
facility. The maintenance of our debt levels could adversely affect our flexibility to take advantage of certain
corporate opportunities and could adversely affect our financial condition and results of operations. We may be
required to use all or a substantial portion of our cash balance to repay these notes on maturity unless we can
obtain new financing.
Adverse global economic events may harm our business, operating results and financial condition.
Adverse macroeconomic conditions could negatively affect our business, operating results or financial
condition under a number of different scenarios. During challenging economic times and periods of high
unemployment, current or potential customers may delay or forgo decisions to license new products or additional
instances of existing products, upgrade their existing hardware or operating environments (which upgrades are
often a catalyst for new purchases of our software), or purchase services. Customers may also have difficulties in
obtaining the requisite third-party financing to complete the purchase of our products and services. An adverse
macroeconomic environment could also subject us to increased credit risk should customers be unable to pay us,
or delay paying us, for previously purchased products and services. Accordingly, reserves for doubtful accounts
and write-offs of accounts receivable may increase. In addition, weakness in the market for end users of our
products could harm the cash flow of our distributors and resellers who could then delay paying their obligations
to us or experience other financial difficulties. This would further increase our credit risk exposure and,
potentially, cause delays in our recognition of revenue on sales to these customers.
In addition, the onset or continuation of adverse economic conditions may make it more difficult either to
utilize our existing debt capacity or otherwise obtain financing for our operations, investing activities (including
potential acquisitions) or financing activities. Specific economic trends, such as declines in the demand for PCs,
servers, and other computing devices, or softness in corporate information technology spending, could have an
even more direct, and harmful, impact on our business.
Our international operations involve risks that could increase our expenses, adversely affect our operating
results, and require increased time and attention of our management.
We derive a substantial portion of our revenues from customers located outside of the U.S. and we have
significant operations outside of the U.S., including engineering, sales, customer support, and production. We
plan to expand our international operations, but such expansion is contingent upon our identification of growth
opportunities. Our international operations are subject to risks in addition to those faced by our domestic
operations, including:
• Potential loss of proprietary information due to misappropriation or laws that may be less protective of
our intellectual property rights than U.S. laws or that may not be adequately enforced
• Requirements of foreign laws and other governmental controls, including trade and labor restrictions
and related laws that reduce the flexibility of our business operations
• Regulations or restrictions on the use, import, or export of encryption technologies that could delay or
prevent the acceptance and use of encryption products and public networks for secure communications
• Local business and cultural factors that differ from our normal standards and practices, including
business practices that we are prohibited from engaging in by the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and
other anti-corruption laws and regulations
• Central bank and other restrictions on our ability to repatriate cash from our international subsidiaries
or to exchange cash in international subsidiaries into cash available for use in the U.S.
• Fluctuations in currency exchange rates, economic instability and inflationary conditions could reduce
our customers’ ability to obtain financing for software products or that could make our products more
expensive or could increase our costs of doing business in certain countries
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