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Alternately acquiring, divesting technologies, companies
DESPITE RECENT SETBACKS including the spinning off of parts of the company gained through mergers and acquisitions, Symantec Corp. is on a roll.
Since going public in 1989, Symantec has acquired more than 15 companies and technologies. It also has divested a number of those products and acquisitions.
Gordon Eubanks, Symantec's president and chief executive, said he fully expects to continue on the acquisition trail.
Most recently, Symantec, Cupertino, spun off its Networking Business Unit, which was responsible for the Norton Administrator Suite: Norton Administrator for Networks, the Expose servermanagement solution and Norton Desktop Administrator. HewlettPackard Co. picked up the business for $30 million, while Symantec expects to incur a onetime charge of $8 million to $10million.
Skeptics maintain this selloff-along with Symantec's failure to gain share in enterprise back up and utilities, which is why it bought Fifth Generation Systems Inc. in the first placeshows a real weakness.
In March 1996, Symantec added Germantown, Md.-based Fast Track Inc. to its stable for $7.2 million, only to spin off some of that company's technology in the sale of the networking business. "The network administration business was unfortunate," Eubanks said. "That turned out not to be a business that we were going to serve customers in the long term.
"Other people are going to keep trying and we're going to see what happens. I think partnering with HP on that was a good strategic move for us. Our core business is the same. Our revenue is growing. It's not like we're shrinking," he added.
Mark Bailey, Symantec's vice president of business...