Symantec

Type:	Public
Industry:	Computer Software & Security
Founded:	1982
Founder(s):	Gary Hendrix
Headquarters:	Mountainview, California
Country:	USA
Employees:	18,600 as of 2011
Revenue:	$5.9 million as of 2010
Website:	www.symantec.com
Facebook:	Symantec
LinkedIn:	Symantec
Twitter:	@symantec
Key People
John W. Thompson, Chairman Enrique T. Salem, CEO

Symantec is an international security, storage, and systems management solutions company. The company has approximately 18, 6000 employees in 50 countries as 2011. Its headquarters is located in Mountainview, California. Enrique T. Salem is the current CEO of the company.

History

Dr. Gary Hedricks, a natural language and artificial intelligence expert together with a group of researchers from Stanford University established Symantec in 1982. The company used the grant provided by the National Science Foundation as initial capital to develop new software and database program. In 1983, some venture capitalist interested in artificial intelligence provided additional funding to Hendrix. Dennis Coleman and Gordon E. Eubanks, Jr., co-founders of C&E software agreed to merged their company with Symantec in 1984. Symantec was retained the name of the joint company and Eubanks became its CEO. John Doerr, a venture capitalist believed that Symantec has a great potential. He provided capital and became member of the board of directors. In 1985, Symantec’s introduced its first product called Q&A, a flat-file database management software program compatible with IBM personal computer. The company sold $ 8 million for the first two years but the company was expecting better sales result. This prompted Eubanks to establish the company’s Turner Hall Publishing division to publish third-party software. By October 1985, Note-It; a notation utility for Lotus 1-2-3 was published by Turner Hall.

In 1987, Symantec acquired different companies such as: Breakthrough Software, developer of Timeline- a project management program for compatible with IBM pc; Living Videotext, developer of ThinkTank- a graphic presentation program for Macintosh and Grandview- an information management program for personal computers; Think Technologies, developer of programming languages THINK C and THINK Pascal for the Macintosh. The company also developed InBox, an electronic mail system. Symantec made its initial public offering on June 23, 1989 with Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol SYMC.

The following year, Symantec acquired Peter Norton Computing Inc., pioneer in developing DOS-based utilities software known as the Norton Utilities used to backup and compress files and to check for viruses and restore lost data. Peter Norton Computing Inc., became a division of Symantec and it was renamed Peter Norton Computing Group.

In 1991, Symantec acquired purchased Leonard Development Group, developer of GreatWorks; an integrated software applications program for Macintosh; Zortech Inc., developer of cross-platform C++ programming language compilers and Dynamic Microprocessor Associated Inc., developer of pcANYWHERE, a remote control communications software product for personal computers.

Symantec started its international operations in 1991 by opening a manufacturing plant in Ireland and its administrative center in Netherlands. In 1992, Symantec UK became the company’s exclusive distributor in United Kingdom. In 1994, Symantec established a network of more than 150 partners around the world and selling translated versions of its more than 120 software products in different languages. In 1995, Symantec released the Norton Antivirus, Norton Utilities and Norton Navigator simultaneously when Microsoft launched Windows 95 as new operating system. In 1997, the company established its Anti Virus Research Center while its Networking Business Unit assets were sold to Hewlett and Packard.

In 1999, John W. Thompson became Chairman, President and CEO of Symantec after Eubanks stepped down from his position. Thompson retire from his position as CEO of the company on April 3, 2009 but he remained Chairman. He was succeeded by Enrique Salem. On February 15, 2011, Symantec was inducted to the Small Business Administration (SBA) Hall of Fame.