Symantec on Thursday said that President and Chief Executive Officer Michael Brown will be stepping down as head of the security firm after a successor has been appointed.
A search is currently underway for the Company’s next CEO, and Brown will remain on board until a replacement has been appointed.
With Brown stepping down, Symantec will be moving onto its fourth CEO in just four years. Brown was appointed CEO in September 2014, after former CEO Steve Bennett was terminated by the security company. Bennett took the top position at Symantec in July 2012, after his predecessor, Enrique Salem, was pushed out at the decision of the Board of Directors.
Brown joined Symantec’s board of directors following the company’s acquisition of Veritas Software in July 2005.
After completing the sale of its Veritas information management (IM) business to a group of investors led by the Carlyle Group early this year, Symantec has become a pure-play cyber security company. The sale gave Symantec roughly $5.3 billion in after-tax cash proceeds—$1 billion less than the company originally expected to receive from the sale.
Symantec orginally bought Veritas for roughly $13.5 billion.
The company said it would continue on its strategy to deliver $400 million in cost savings over the next two years.
Symantec also revised its guidance for its fourth quarter of fiscal year 2016, saying revenue is now expected to be $873 million compared to previous guidance of $885 to $915 million.
“A shift in enterprise security customer buying preferences is resulting in less license revenue during the quarter and more revenue being deferred to future periods,” the company said. “This included a faster than expected shift within our product mix to subscription and ratable contract structures.”
Shares of Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC) traded down nearly 7 percent to $16.86 at the market close on Thursday.
