Premiere Global Sports Deploys Symantec Solutions to Secure and Back Up Virtual Systems

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Premiere Global Sports Deploys Symantec Solutions to Secure and Back Up Virtual Systems

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – March 27, 2012 – Symantec Corp. (Nasdaq: SYMC) today announced that Premiere Global Sports, a provider of specialized sports travel and hospitality products is using Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition and Symantec Backup Exec to centralize protection of the company’s distributed endpoints. While Premiere Global Sports is a small business, the data they produce is growing on an enterprise scale and thus needs the protection of an enterprise-class solution. Since the deployment, Premiere Global Sports can protect, back up, and provide disaster recovery capabilities for its virtualized business systems.

Premiere Global Sports has grown by acquisition over the last decade, and as a result, most of its 75 full-time employees are distributed across the United States. Consequently, all of its endpoints were managed individually with a variety of antivirus products.

“Many of the companies we acquired were flying by the seat of their pants and didn’t have time to focus on IT infrastructure,” said Jason Drake, Premiere Global Sports’ director of infrastructure and security. “We were tasked with choosing expandable platforms that can meet more needs than we have right now.”

Centralizing Endpoint Protection

Based on past positive experiences, Drake selected Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition to centralize protection of its distributed endpoints and to protect multiple independent servers and dozens of Windows endpoints. In addition to endpoint security, the Symantec Protection Suite Enterprise Edition license includes email server security, email and web gateway virtual appliances, and desktop system recovery. The Enterprise Edition will accommodate Premiere Global Sports’ future growth.

“Having Symantec Protection Suite in place—especially with its defense against zero-day threats—definitely makes me feel more at ease,” Drake said. “By leveraging the new security management solution, we can pinpoint security threats and increase the productivity of our security operations.”

Reliable Backup and Recovery for a Virtualized IT Environment

To support Premiere Global Sports’ growing business, Drake and his team chose Symantec Backup Exec to reduce downtime and ensure critical information on both their virtual and physical systems is always protected and restored in seconds.

“Our IT environment is 90 – 95 percent virtualized, and we continue to leverage this technology to reduce costs and the number of physical servers,” said Drake. “We have trusted Backup Exec to backup our data for several years and the transition from a physical server infrastructure to virtual infrastructure didn’t change our choice in a data protection solution.”

Backup Exec simplifies both backup and disaster recovery, allowing Drake to focus on strategic programs. Plus, Premiere Global Sports will soon begin beta testing Backup Exec 2012 as its deduplication features will streamline backup operations even further.

“Based on my testing, Backup Exec gives me the ability to recover both physical and virtual systems in case of a catastrophe,” Drake said. “Symantec’s V-Ray technology embedded in Backup Exec also allows us to easily expand to a virtual environment and feel confident in our decision.”

About Symantec

Symantec is a global leader in providing security, storage and systems management solutions to help consumers and organizations secure and manage their information-driven world. Our software and services protect against more risks at more points, more completely and efficiently, enabling confidence wherever information is used or stored. More information is available at www.symantec.com.

Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend & Share Repurchase Program

Apple Announces Plans to Initiate Dividend and Share Repurchase Program

Expects to Spend $45 Billion Over Three Years

CUPERTINO, California—March 19, 2012—Apple® today announced plans to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program commencing later this year.

Subject to declaration by the Board of Directors, the Company plans to initiate a quarterly dividend of $2.65 per share sometime in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2012, which begins on July 1, 2012.

Additionally, the Company’s Board of Directors has authorized a $10 billion share repurchase program commencing in the Company’s fiscal 2013, which begins on September 30, 2012. The repurchase program is expected to be executed over three years, with the primary objective of neutralizing the impact of dilution from future employee equity grants and employee stock purchase programs.

“We have used some of our cash to make great investments in our business through increased research and development, acquisitions, new retail store openings, strategic prepayments and capital expenditures in our supply chain, and building out our infrastructure. You’ll see more of all of these in the future,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “Even with these investments, we can maintain a war chest for strategic opportunities and have plenty of cash to run our business. So we are going to initiate a dividend and share repurchase program.”

“Combining dividends, share repurchases, and cash used to net-share-settle vesting RSUs, we anticipate utilizing approximately $45 billion of domestic cash in the first three years of our programs,” said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple’s CFO. “We are extremely confident in our future and see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

Apple will provide live streaming of a conference call to discuss its plans beginning at 6:00 a.m. PDT on Monday, March 19, 2012 at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/call31912. The Company will not be providing an update on the current quarter nor will any topics be discussed other than cash. This webcast will also be available for replay for approximately two weeks thereafter.

This press release contains forward-looking statements including without limitation those regarding future business outlook and plans for dividends and share repurchases. These statements involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the effect of competitive and economic factors, and the Company’s reaction to those factors, on consumer and business buying decisions with respect to the Company’s products; continued competitive pressures in the marketplace; the ability of the Company to deliver to the marketplace and stimulate customer demand for new programs, products, and technological innovations on a timely basis; the effect that product introductions and transitions, changes in product pricing or mix, and/or increases in component costs could have on the Company’s gross margin; the inventory risk associated with the Company’s need to order or commit to order product components in advance of customer orders; the continued availability on acceptable terms, or at all, of certain components and services essential to the Company’s business currently obtained by the Company from sole or limited sources; the effect that the Company’s dependency on manufacturing and logistics services provided by third parties may have on the quality, quantity or cost of products manufactured or services rendered; risks associated with the Company’s international operations; the Company’s reliance on third-party intellectual property and digital content; the potential impact of a finding that the Company has infringed on the intellectual property rights of others; the Company’s dependency on the performance of distributors, carriers and other resellers of the Company’s products; the effect that product and service quality problems could have on the Company’s sales and operating profits; the continued service and availability of key executives and employees; war, terrorism, public health issues, natural disasters, and other circumstances that could disrupt supply, delivery, or demand of products; and unfavorable results of other legal proceedings. More information on potential factors that could affect the Company’s financial results is included from time to time in the “Risk Factors” and “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” sections of the Company’s public reports filed with the SEC, including the Company’s Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 24, 2011 and its Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011. The Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements or information, which speak as of their respective dates.

Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad.