Symantec Corporation was founded in 1982 by
Gary HendrixGary Hendrix is a natural language analyst who founded Symantec Corporation, an international corporation which sells computer software, particularly in the fields of information management and antivirus software.-Personal life:...
with a
National Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
grant. Symantec was originally focused on
artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
-related projects, including a database program. Hendrix hired several
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
natural language processingNatural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages. Natural language generation systems convert information from computer databases into readable human language...
researchers as the company's first employees. In 1984 Symantec was acquired by another, even smaller computer software startup company, C&E Software, founded by Denis Coleman and
Gordon EubanksGordon Eubanks is a microcomputer industry pioneer who worked with Gary Kildall in the early days of Digital Research. Eubanks attended Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kildall was his graduate thesis advisor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA...
and headed by Eubanks.
Symantec Corporation was founded in 1982 by
Gary HendrixGary Hendrix is a natural language analyst who founded Symantec Corporation, an international corporation which sells computer software, particularly in the fields of information management and antivirus software.-Personal life:...
with a
National Science FoundationThe National Science Foundation is a United States government agency that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National Institutes of Health...
grant. Symantec was originally focused on
artificial intelligenceArtificial intelligence is the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science which aims to create it. Textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents,"...
-related projects, including a database program. Hendrix hired several
Stanford UniversityThe Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university located in Stanford, California, United States...
natural language processingNatural language processing is a field of computer science and linguistics concerned with the interactions between computers and human languages. Natural language generation systems convert information from computer databases into readable human language...
researchers as the company's first employees. In 1984 Symantec was acquired by another, even smaller computer software startup company, C&E Software, founded by Denis Coleman and
Gordon EubanksGordon Eubanks is a microcomputer industry pioneer who worked with Gary Kildall in the early days of Digital Research. Eubanks attended Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kildall was his graduate thesis advisor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA...
and headed by Eubanks. The merged company retained the name Symantec, and Eubanks became its
chief executive officerA chief executive officer or chief executive is one of the highest-ranking corporate officers or administrators in charge of total management...
. Its first product, Q&A, was released in 1985. Q&A provided
database managementA Database Management System is a set of computer programs that controls the creation, maintenance, and the use of the database in a computer platform or of an organization and its end users. It allows organizations to place control of organization-wide database development in the hands of...
and bundled a word processor. In August of 1990, Symantec purchased
Peter Norton ComputingPeter Norton Computing, Inc., was a software company founded by Peter Norton. One of the most notable software packages it produced is Norton Utilities. Another very popular software was Norton Commander, especially the DOS version...
a developer of various applications for
DOSDOS, short for "Disk Operating System", is a shorthand term for several closely related operating systems that dominated the IBM PC compatible market between 1981 and 1995, or until about 2000 if one includes the partially DOS-based Microsoft Windows versions Windows 95, 98, and ME.Related systems...
. Symantec's consumer antivirus and data management utilities are still marketed under
Peter Norton'sPeter Norton is an American software publisher, author, and philanthropist.-Career:Norton was born in Aberdeen, Washington...
name.
Foundation
At one time Symantec was also known for its development tools, particularly the
THINK Pascal,
THINK CTHINK C was an extension of ANSI C for Mac OS developed by THINK Technologies; although named Lightspeed C in the original mid-1986 release, it was later renamed Think C due to a lawsuit. THINK Technologies was later acquired by Symantec Corporation and the product continued to be developed by the...
,
Symantec C++, and
Visual CafeVisual Café was an integrated development environment for the Java programming language. It included a GUI builder and was marketed as a series of editions: "Standard Edition," "Enterprise Suite," "Expert Edition," "Professional Edition," and "Development Edition." The "Enterprise Suite" was...
packages that were popular on the Macintosh and
IBM PC compatibleIBM PC compatible computers are those generally similar to the original IBM PC, XT, and AT. Such computers used to be referred to as PC clones, or IBM clones since they almost exactly duplicated all the significant features of the PC architecture, facilitated by various manufacturers' ability to...
platforms; they exited this business in the late-1990s as competitors such as
MetrowerksMetrowerks was a company that developed software development tools for various desktop, handheld, embedded, and game platforms. Its flagship product, CodeWarrior, comprised an IDE, compilers, linkers, libraries, and related tools...
,
MicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is a multinational computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of software products for computing devices...
, and
BorlandBorland Software Corporation is a software company headquartered in Austin, Texas.It is a Micro Focus company. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn....
gained significant market share.
Norton products
Symantec's consumer division, Norton, accounts for about one third of the company's revenue. The 2009 line-up includes
Norton 360Norton 360, developed by Symantec, is marketed as an "all-in-one" security suite. The package includes a personal firewall, phishing protection and the ability to detect and remove malware...
,
Norton AntiVirusNorton AntiVirus, developed and distributed by Symantec Corporation, provides malware prevention and removal during a subscription period. It uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features include e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection.Symantec distributes the product as...
(for Windows and Mac),
Norton Internet SecurityNorton Internet Security, developed by Symantec Corporation, provides malware prevention and removal during a subscription period and uses signatures and heuristics to identify viruses. Other features include a software firewall, e-mail spam filtering and phishing protection.Symantec distributes...
,
Norton SystemWorksNorton SystemWorks is a system utility suite by Symantec. It expanded the tools found from Norton Utilities, but added other Symantec's software titles, primarily anti-virus, and later backup software for the high-end versions....
(which now contains
Norton UtilitiesThe Norton Utilities releases are collections of software utilities.The current version 14 of Norton Utilities Premier Edition for Windows XP/Vista/7 was released October 14, 2009....
), Norton Save & Restore, Norton Ghost, Norton pcAnywhere, Norton Smartphone Security, Norton Partition Magic, Norton Online Backup, and
OnlineFamily.NortonOnlineFamily.Norton is a cloud-based parental control service. Online Family is aimed at "fostering communication" involving parents and their children's online activities...
.
The Symantec Security Response organization (formerly Symantec Antivirus Research Center) is one of the foremost antivirus and computer security research groups in the industry with over 400 full-time employees.
Enterprise software
Approximately two-thirds of the company's revenue is derived from software designed for companies and large organizations -- i.e., enterprise software.
Symantec substantially grew its enterprise business when it acquired VERITAS Software
Veritas acquisition
On December 16, 2004,
VeritasVeritas Software Corp. was an international software company that was founded in 1983 as Tolerant Systems, renamed Veritas Software Corp. in 1989, and merged with Symantec in 2005. It was headquartered in Mountain View, California...
and Symantec announced their plans for a merger. With Veritas valued at $13.5 billion, it was the largest software industry merger to date. Symantec's shareholders voted to approve the merger on June 24, 2005; the deal closed successfully on July 2, 2005. July 5, 2005 was the first day of business for U.S. offices of the new, combined software company. As a result of this merger, Symantec includes storage and availability related products in its portfolio namely
Veritas File SystemThe VERITAS File System, , is an extent-based file system. It was originally developed by VERITAS Software. Through an OEM agreement, VxFS is used as the primary filesystem of the HP-UX operating system...
(VxFS),
Veritas Volume ManagerThe Veritas Volume Manager, VVM or VxVM is a proprietary logical volume manager from Veritas . It is available for Windows, AIX, Solaris, Linux, and HP-UX. A modified version is bundled with HP-UX as its built-in volume manager...
(VxVM), Veritas Volume Replicator (VVR) and
Veritas Cluster ServerVeritas Cluster Server is a High-availability cluster software, for Unix, Linux and Microsoft Windows computer systems, created by Veritas Software...
(VCS).
Sygate acquisition
On August 16, 2005, Symantec acquired Sygate a security software firm with about 200 staff, based in
FremontFremont is a city in Alameda County, California. It was incorporated on January 23, 1956, from the merger of five smaller communities: Centerville, Niles, Irvington, Mission San Jose, and Warm Springs. The city is named after John Charles Frémont, "the Great Pathfinder."Fremont is located in the...
,
CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
. As of November 30, 2005 all Sygate personal firewall products were discontinued by Symantec and now appears to be part of Symantec's Norton range called
Norton Personal FirewallNorton Personal Firewall , developed by Symantec, is a computer firewall with ad blocking, and control of individual applications' Internet access capabilities.It has been discontinued.-Advertisement-blocking:...
(discontinued and merged into Norton-brand line of software).
Altiris acquisition
On January 29, 2007, Symantec announced plans to acquire
AltirisAltiris Inc. is a subsidiary of Symantec specializing in service-oriented management software which allows organizations to manage IT assets. They also provide software for web services, security, and systems management products. Established in 1998, Altiris is headquartered in Lindon, Utah, United...
and on April 6, 2007 the acquisition was completed.
AltirisAltiris Inc. is a subsidiary of Symantec specializing in service-oriented management software which allows organizations to manage IT assets. They also provide software for web services, security, and systems management products. Established in 1998, Altiris is headquartered in Lindon, Utah, United...
specializes in service-oriented management software which allows organizations to manage
ITInformation technology , as defined by the Information Technology Association of America , is "the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware." IT deals with the use of electronic...
assets. They also provide software for web services, security, and systems management products. Established in 1998, Altiris is headquartered in
Lindon, UtahLindon is a city in Utah County, Utah, United States. It is part of the Provo–Orem, Utah Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 8,363 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Lindon is located at ....
, United States.
Vector Capital sellout
On January 17, 2008, Symantec announced that they were spinning off the Application Performance Management (Precise Software Solutions) business to Vector Capital. Upon closing of the transaction, Precise Software Solutions will take over all development, product management, marketing and sales for the APM business. To ensure a smooth transition for customers and the new company overall, Symantec will continue to support the APM business post closing via a transition services agreement. Additionally, Symantec and Vector have signed an agreement allowing Symantec to continue to sell APM software and support to its customers. Further, Symantec will continue to honor the terms and conditions of its support commitments to its customers, and will leverage the APM personnel transferred over to Precise Software Solutions to ensure continuity of support. This business unit contains all the
i3I3, I-3 or i3 can stand for:* Core i3, a microprocessor from Intel* I3 engine, a designation for a in-line 3-piston engine* HIJMS I-3, a WWII Imperial Japanese Navy J1 type submarine* LB&SCR I3 class, a British LB&SCR locomotive...
products.
MessageLabs acquisition
On October 9, 2008, Symantec announced its intent to acquire Gloucester based
MessageLabsMessageLabs, now part of Symantec, is a major provider of integrated messaging and web security services, with over 19,000 clients ranging from small business to the Fortune 500 located in more than 86 countries and the United Kingdom parliament...
(a 2007 spin-off from parent company Star Internet) to boost its Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) business. The acquisition closed on November 17, 2008.
See also
- Huawei Symantec
Huawei Symantec Technologies Co. Ltd. is a developer, producer and supplier of network security, storage and computing solutions. It is headquartered in Chengdu, People's Republic of China. Huawei Symantec is a joint venture between Huawei and Symantec. Huawei owns 51% of the company, while...
- Joint Venture of Huawei and Symantec
- Gordon Eubanks
Gordon Eubanks is a microcomputer industry pioneer who worked with Gary Kildall in the early days of Digital Research. Eubanks attended Oklahoma State University. Dr. Kildall was his graduate thesis advisor at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA...
(former CEO)
External links