By Riz Reyes
Size matters not only in sports but in business as well, just like the recent acquisition of security firm Blue Coat by tech giant Symantec.
?With the acquisition of Blue Coat, Symantec has gotten additional firepower to meet the security needs of customers,? says Marc Andrews, senior vice president of worldwide sales at Symantec, in a recent interview with Newsbytes.PH in Makati City.
?From a financial perspective, the company is profitable and growing, but a lot of companies in the security sector are not profitable,? Andrews adds.
He says that consolidation of the company is going to be smooth and will last for about nine months. After the integration, a single organization focused on the needs of the customers will emerge, according to the executive.
Symantec recently acquired Blue Coat for approximately $4.65 billion. Blue Coat, regarded as the market leader in cloud Web security, earned $755 million in fiscal year 2016.
Blue Coat CEO Greg Clark will be appointed CEO of the merged companies and he will join the Symantec board led by Dan Schulman.
Asked why Symantec why decided to go for the big acquisition, Andrews says the company?s decision to focus on cyber security agenda was the deciding factor to pursue the deal.
?Symantec decided to focus on the cyber security agenda because it is a robust business at the same time sustainable in the long run,? explains Andrews.
With the amalgamation of two cyber technology giants, Symantec has emerged as the biggest security company in the world.
Andrews says the merger will clear out components that needs to be refined to ensure a smooth transition. ?We did the work for the first week of April and at the same time taken Blue Coat installations of Oracle and put it under the Symantec brand,? says Andrews.
Moreover, Andrews says one of the unique elements of the merger is the “almost zero overlap in technology.” ?Technology integration has been smooth ever since the merger. We?ve come with our first digital integration,? Andrews points out.
Peter Sparkes, senior director of cybersecurity services for Symantec Asia Pacific and Japan, says the company will be more visible in the media and the marketplace to discuss the new products that will be introduced after the Blue Coat acquisition.
?Symantec will continue to deliver the things that customers have been receiving for the past years. There will be integration of the new technologies will be accepted as more customers will come into the list. Automation of services will be fully maximized because customers are expecting quicker delivery of services,? Sparkes says.
