Enrique Salem is out as Symantec’s CEO after three years, with the board of directors saying the company is "underperforming" given its market position.
Steve Bennett, chairman of the board and former CEO of accounting software firm Intuit, will be replacing Salem with immediate effect.
In a brief statement released to coincide with the company’s financial results, Bennett said the company should be doing better than it is, with Salem the apparent fall guy.
"Enrique Salem has been a significant contributor during his 19 years’ associated with Symantec, including the last three years as CEO," Bennett said. "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," he added.
The company’s financial results for the first quarter are solid rather than spectacular. Revenue came in at $1.67bn, up just 1% on the year ago quarter. Net income was $172m, a drop of around 10% from the $191m recorded this time last year.
The company said its acquisitions of eDiscovery vendor Clearwell and email archiving firm LiveOffice added $24m to the quarter’s revenue. Without that impact, Symantec would have seen a dip in revenue as well as profit.
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Revenue from the company’s Consumer division dipped 1%, while its Storage and Server Management unit fell by 2%. Revenue from its Services department also fell by 2%. However its Security and Compliance segment saw an impressive 7% climb, no doubt boosted by increased data regulation laws in various parts of the world.
