Symantec Corp met with investors late yesterday to confess it would finish the first quarter worse than predicted. The software utilities firm was in the black in its fiscal fourth quarter, but reported year end 1995 losses of $39.8m, at which time CEO Gordon Eubanks blamed slow adoption of Windows 95, sluggish European sales, the charge from the Delrina Corp acquisition, the government shut-down – yes, really – but predicted strong 1996 financials. He was wrong. The company, famed for its Norton anti- virus software, was expected to increase revenues by about 5% from year-earlier turnover of $109.9m. It’s new, projected figures were not available at press time and Symantec wouldn’t comment yesterday. Symantec appears to have been in a forced-lull time, coming to grips with its Delrina buy, trying to get its intranet strategy in hand and praying those Windows 95 fans show up for the game. The potential is strong for the firm’s Java virus scanner for applets sent over the Internet, but it’s still in the develop ment stage. Analyst James Greene at Summit Strategies said They need to get out a unified intranet strategy – soon. In its fourth quarter, the software tools firm reported net income up 43.6% at $7.9m on revenue up 7% at $115.9m, but it finished the year with losses of $39.8m against a $33.4m profit last year on revenues that rose 3.3% to $445.4m.
