Cyber security firm Symantec will cut 8 percent of its global workforce to enhance profit margins.
The US-based company on Thursday also lowered its yearly revenue forecast as it closed fewer business deals than expected.
Symantec said it expects the workforce reduction will reduce costs by $115 million annually. “We expect that these actions will partially benefit fiscal year 2019 operating margins and will have full effect to fiscal year 2020,” Symantec CFO Nick Noviello said on a conference call with analysts.
The Mountain View, California-headquartered company employed more than 13,000 employees worldwide as of March 2017, according to Symantec’s latest annual report, and the workforce cuts translate to around 1,000 workers.
Symantec’s revenue in the first quarter ended June 29 dipped 1.6 percent to $1.156 billion, largely due to lower sales at its enterprise customer division that serves businesses and other organizations.
Long-term contracts with businesses are vital for Symantec at a time when companies are boosting their cybersecurity budgets and as consumers shun personal computers which typically come fitted with antivirus software.
Symantec reported a first-quarter net loss of $63 million, compared with a loss of $133 million a year earlier.
Symantec is also in the midst of an internal investigation related to its accounting practices, Reuters reported.
Symantec now expects adjusted revenue of between $4.67 billion and $4.79 billion for the year ending in March 2019, down from its previous forecast of $4.76 billion to $4.90 billion.
Symantec has also lowered its revenue target for Q2 to between $1.122 billion and $1.152 billion from the earlier target of $1.13 billion to $1.16 billion.
Symantec is expecting an operating margin of –1 percent in Q2 against 26-28 percent in Q2 and 4-5 percent in 2018 against 30 percent.
