Gain a global perspective on the US and go beyond with curated news and analysis from 600 journalists in 50+ countries covering politics, business, innovation, trends and more.<doc-sep>Symantec president, CEO and board member Greg Clark has stepped down from all roles effective immediately following an internal accounting probe, activist investor unrest and enterprise sales struggles. The platform security vendor said former Novellus Systems Chairman and CEO Richard Hill will take over immediately as interim president and CEO. Symantec said it plans to begin the search process to find a permanent CEO. "Symantec has a significant opportunity to further enhance shareholder value by continuing to build on the leadership and momentum of both our enterprise and consumer cyber safety segments," Symantec board of directors chairman Daniel Schulman said in a statement. "As we enter a new financial year, Greg and the Board agreed that now is the right time to transition leadership." Clark started as CEO of Blue Coat Systems in 2011, and assumed the same role at Symantec in August 2016 when the company's acquisition of Blue Coat closed. The company's stock is down US$2.31, or 10.42 percent, to US$19.86 in after-hours trading, which is the lowest Symantec's stock has traded since January. "As Symantec enters its next phase of growth and value creation, it is the right time for the Board to identify the next generation of leadership," Clark said in a statement. Clark's final year at Symantec has been very turbulent, with the company reaching an agreement with activity investor Starboard Value in September to name three new independent members to the company's board of directors. Starboard said in an August 2018 regulatory filing that it believed shares of Symantec were undervalued at the time of purchase, and that it hopes to change the makeup of Symantec's board to unlock more value. Symantec's board has decreased in size from 13 to 12 following Clark's resignation as a member of the board of directors. Eleven of those 12 board members are now independent, Symantec said. Symantec also announced in September that it had finished its internal probe into concerns raised by a former employee and deferred US$12 million of revenue that had been recognised in the quarter ended March 2018. The probe identified certain behaviour inconsistent with the company's code of conduct, and referred the matter to Symantec for appropriate action. Clark's departure continues the executive brain drain atop Symantec, with president and COO Michael Fey leaving in December to take the CEO position at Mesosphere and EVP and CFO Nicholas Noviello announcing plans to depart Symantec in January. Symantec announced Thursday that Vincent Pilette - former Logitech CFO and VP of finance for HPE's server, storage and networking business - will become CFO on 21 May. Bloomberg reported late last year that CMO Michael Williams and Brandon Rogers, senior vice president of the go-to-market team, had also left the company. Symantec declined to comment on that report. "Symantec is known for its R&D strengths, its iconic brands, and the breadth of its portfolio, and I am eager to work with the management team to drive growth across our Enterprise and Consumer segments and deliver value to our customers, partners and shareholders," Pilette said in a statement. Fey's footsteps, meanwhile, have been largely filled by former Skyport Systems president and CEO Art Gilliland, who had previously led Symantec's 1300-person enterprise information security business in the early 2010s. Gilliland led Skyport from pre-product startup to being acquired by Cisco Systems in early 2018. "During the CEO search process and beyond, we will benefit from our deep bench of leaders, including Art Gilliland and Samir Kapuria, to help maintain continuity and leadership across our Enterprise and Consumer organisations," Hill said in a statement. Fey credited Gilliland in January for delivering Enterprise Security sales for the quarter that were US$31 million above the top end of Symantec's guidance range due to a higher mix of sales yielding upfront revenue than the company had anticipated. That was in contrast to Fey's comments in October 2018, where he expressed concerns about "momentum loss" in the segment due to implied billings declines. Three months earlier, Fey announced plans for Symantec to cut its 11,000-person staff by up to 8 percent as part of a US$50 million restructuring plan. This article originally appeared at crn.com<doc-sep>(Reuters) - Symantec Corp’s chief executive officer stepped down unexpectedly on Thursday, the same day the antivirus software maker issued a profit warning, sending the shares plunging in after-hours trading. FILE PHOTO: Greg Clark, Chief Executive Officer of Symantec, takes part in the Yahoo Finance All Markets Summit in New York, U.S., February 8, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo Symantec said CEO Greg Clark will be replaced by director Richard Hill on an interim basis. Hill was formerly CEO of semiconductor maker Novellus Systems, giving him experience in enterprise sales, an area where Symantec has faltered. Symantec reported fiscal fourth-quarter sales of $1.19 billion, down from $1.21 billion a year ago and below analysts’ estimates of $1.21 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. The software company also said it expects first-quarter profit between 30 cents and 34 cents per share, below estimates of 40 cents per share. Shares fell 13 percent in after-market trading. “This is a disaster of epic proportions. The guidance combined with abrupt CEO departure will be a major gut punch to the Street. There are a lot of questions with minimal answers,” Daniel Ives, analyst at Wedbush said. When asked about Clark’s sudden departure by analysts on a call after the earnings announcement, Hill said: “He (Clark) has had issues with his father being ill. And the pressure is quite high that we want to continue to deliver strong financial results and also growth on the top line for shareholders, simultaneously.” The leadership change follows multiple key executive exits at Symantec late last year, including the chief operating officer and the chief marketing officer. The company posted net income of $34 million, or 5 cents per share, in the reported quarter, compared with a loss of $59 million, or 10 cents per share, a year earlier. On an adjusted basis, the company’s profit was 39 cents per share, in line with estimates. Revenue from Symantec’s enterprise security division fell to $584 million, below estimates of $607 million. The consumer security division’s revenue of $605 million was above expectations of $601 million. Symantec also named Vincent Pilette, formerly with Logitech, as its new chief financial officer, replacing Nicholas Noviello whose departure was announced in January.<doc-sep>
Symantec stock fell more than 15% Thursday after the security company said its president and CEO, Greg Clark, has stepped down. The company is looking for a permanent replacement. Symantec director Richard Hill, formerly CEO of Novellus Systems, was named interim president and CEO, effective immediately, according to a statement. In late April Clark made it clear that he wanted to spend more time with his aging father, Hill told analysts on a Thursday conference call. Hill also said that "for anyone, and certainly someone with the pride of Greg, he doesn't like to see the results that happened in the fourth quarter." On Thursday Symantec reported earnings for the fourth quarter of its 2019 fiscal year, which ended on March 29. The company said it had 39 cents in earnings per share, excluding certain items, in line with the Refinitiv analyst consensus estimate. Revenue of $1.20 billion was just under the $1.21 billion estimate. The company's guidance, for both the first quarter of fiscal year 2020 and the full 2020 fiscal year, was lower than analysts had expected. "When you're at the top of the pyramid, sometimes things happen," said Hill, 67. Clark became CEO in 2016, replacing Michael Brown. Clark arrived at Symantec earlier that year through the acquisition of security company Blue Coat, of which he was CEO. Earlier in his career Clark was an executive at IBM after it acquired Dascom, a security company Clark had founded. In 2016 at the time that Symantec announced that Brown, who had been in the CEO position for less than two years, would be stepping down, it did not yet have a replacement. The $4.7 billion Blue Coat deal came less than two months later. Brown in 2014 replaced Steve Bennett, who spent less than three years as CEO. Symantec shares have risen less than 8% since Clark took the company's helm, lagging behind the S&P 500, which has grown 32% in the same period. Clark received $17.3 million in total compensation in the 2018 fiscal year, which ended in March 2018, according to a filing. Symantec's stock fell after it disclosed results for the 2018 fiscal year, guidance for the 2019 fiscal year and an investigation, the company said in its most recent annual report. Following that, the company said, Clark opted to forgo a equity award for the 2019 fiscal year and decided that none of its named executive officers would see a bump in base salaries. "A year ago Symantec began an investigation that happily resulted in our albeit late fiscal year 2018 10-K filing with no adverse material finding," Hill said on the call. "Around the start of the investigation I had reached out to a board member of Symantec to offer my assistance. Several weeks later, unbeknownst to me, Peter Feld, managing partner at Starboard, a friendly activist investor, reached out to Greg Clark and the Symantec board to see if they could help. Peter went to his bullpen for a left-handed pitcher, and voila, I'm here." Additionally Symantec named its new chief financial officer: Vincent Pilette, who was previously Logitech's chief financial officer. Pilette replaces Nicholas Noviello, whose departure was announced in January.﻿ WATCH: Watch CNBC's exclusive interview with Symantec CEO Greg Clark