NEW YORK — While Oracle is mass-mailing pink slips to PeopleSoft employees, Veritas Software Corp. CEO Gary Bloom stressed that his firm’s merger with Symantec is about “”opportunities and not layoffs.””
Bloom said the merger, expected to close in the second calendar quarter, is an opportunity
to take two companies and do something bigger and better.
The merger “”is centred around the integration of employees and is not about cuts,”” said Bloom, who made a stop in New York before heading out to Veritas’s annual North America sales conference in Atlanta, Ga. “”It’s a little harder message to deliver in the shadow of the Oracle-PeopleSoft merger.””
In December Symantec announced it would acquire Veritas for US$13.5 billion, making it the largest transaction in software history.
“”The software industry has not seen a transaction of this size,”” said Bloom, adding that mergers usually involve a big company buying a smaller one or a successful company buying a broken one.
As for his future role at the combined company, which will retain the name Symantec, Bloom said he will be vice-chairman of the board, responsible for customer-facing strategies and strategic alliances.
In terms of Veritas as a brand, the company said it will exist under the Symantec name such as Symantec Norton Anti-Virus, for example.
Fred Dimson, general manager of Veritas Software Canada Inc., said the companies are leaders and offer synergies. “”Both companies are channel-centric and use the same distributors. The merger makes a huge company.””
Synergy
Dimson did not know what his new role will be under the combined firm.
The two companies also announced that they have set an integration team in place, which will be led by Veritas chief financial officer Ed Gillis. He is responsible for establishing the integration management office and forming joint teams to begin the integration process.
The joint teams will be focused on planning for the sales, services and business development structure; outlining the lines of business and developing the technology roadmap; detailing the combined company’s go-to-market plans; integrating the services and support organizations; and combining the finance, infrastructure and legal operations.
Symantec and Veritas have also enlisted Pricewater-houseCoopers to provide merger and acquisition services and Bain & Company to help with customer facing functions.
Neither Bloom nor other Veritas execs provided any further details on the integration plans.
In an earlier announcement, former Veritas vice-president of Americas partner sales Michael Sotnick left his post to head up enterprise software vendor SAP America’s SMB effort. Art Matin, executive vice-president of worldwide sales at Veritas, who came from McAfee, is serving Sotnick’s role in the interim. Veritas said it has plans to hire someone to replace Sotnick but didn’t give any specific dates.
Nick Foster, marketing vice-president of Toronto-based Softchoice Corp., both a Veritas and Symantec partner, said nothing has changed in Canada since Sotnick left.
“”[Art] has been around a long time and knows the security space,”” he said. “”He’s pretty knowledgeable on the channel.””
Veritas announced the latest releases in its portfolio of SMB offerings including Backup Exec 10.0 for Windows server software and a new integrated Windows data protection suite called Veritas Backup Exec 10.0 Suite, which combines Veritas Replication Exec 3.1 and Veritas Storage Exec 5.3.
In support of that announcement, Veritas also introduced new partner education programs, which will be available to its 15,000 partners worldwide through Veritas Sales Professional Program and Veritas Vitual Academy.