Symantec talks up merger
Proposed Veritas deal receives positive channel response, firm claims
The heads of Symantec and Veritas have claimed that their proposed $13.5bn merger has received a "100 per cent positive" response from customers, vendors and the channel.
Speaking at an investor event last week, John Thompson, chief executive of Symantec, and Gary Bloom, chief executive of Veritas, predicted that, subject to regulatory and shareholder approval, the deal will create a $56bn company by 2007.
The new firm, operating under the Symantec name but retaining both sets of product brands, will form the fourth-largest software company in the world, Thompson claimed.
"We will have the strongest channel presence of the leading software companies in the industry. No company above $3bn will outgrow Symantec," he said.
Bloom added that the merger will have an advantage because there will be no product overlap.
"We won't have to spend the time looking at overlaps and deciding what to get rid of. We have the luxury of focusing all our energy on the upside of integration," he said.
Jonathan Schwartz, president of Sun, welcomed the proposed merger. "We have a longstanding partnership with both companies. A strong security and storage company is good news for us and our customers," he said.