Symantec 2015 Annual Report Download - page 111

appliances and the cloud; deliver next-generation availability solutions through a coordinated orchestration
architecture focused on managing and moving mission-critical data in a hybrid cloud world; and enable next-
generation insight solutions that provide visibility, action, and automated control across an organization’s
information landscape through an intelligent information fabric that integrates our portfolio and third-party
ecosystems.
In fiscal 2015, we focused on five priorities: running our businesses with a portfolio approach by managing
certain businesses for operating margin; prioritizing investments for growth; further reducing costs and
improving efficiencies; attracting top talent to our executive team; and continuing to return significant cash to
shareholders. We are optimizing some of our businesses by methodically evaluating every product line to balance
our profitability targets against our objectives. In order to prioritize investments for growth, we are realigning our
research and development budgets to apply the best resources to the most promising market opportunities. To
further reduce costs and improve efficiencies, we are consolidating our global footprint, data centers and product
support capabilities as well as streamlining the way we run our businesses with initiatives to increase research
and development efficiencies and sales productivity. We are focused on continuing to attract talented business
and technology leaders to the company. We remain committed to returning significant cash to shareholders in the
form of dividends and share buybacks.
The Planned Separation of Information Management from the Security Business
On October 9, 2014, we announced plans to separate our business into two independent publicly-traded
companies: one focused on security and one focused on information management. The transaction is intended to
take the form of a tax-free distribution to Symantec shareholders of all of the capital stock of our information
management business. We expect to complete the legal separation on January 2, 2016, subject to market,
regulatory and certain other conditions. John Gannon has been appointed as General Manager of the information
management business, and Don Rath has been appointed as acting Chief Financial Officer. After the transaction,
Michael Brown and Thomas Seifert will continue to lead Symantec as Chief Executive Officer and Chief
Financial Officer, respectively. For additional separation cost information, see Note 6 of the Notes to
Consolidated Financial Statements in this annual report.
Our operating segments
Our operating segments are significant strategic business units that offer different products and services
distinguished by customer needs. In the second quarter of fiscal 2015, we modified our segment reporting
structure to match our new operating structure. The three reporting segments, which are the same as our
operating segments, are:
•Consumer Security: Our Consumer Security segment focuses on making it simple for customers to be
productive and protected at home and at work. Our Norton-branded services provide multi-layer
security and identity protection on major desktop and mobile operating systems, to defend against
increasingly complex online threats to individuals, families, and small businesses.
•Enterprise Security: Our Enterprise Security segment protects organizations so they can securely
conduct business while leveraging new platforms and data. These products include Secure Socket
Layer (“SSL”) Certificates, authentication, mail and web security, data center security, data loss
prevention, information security services, endpoint security and management, encryption, and mobile
security offerings.
•Information Management: Our Information Management segment focuses on backup and recovery,
archiving and eDiscovery, storage and high availability solutions, helping to ensure that our customers’
IT infrastructure and mission-critical applications are protected, managed and available.
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