Symantec CEO Weighs in on Takeover Talk, Starboard

(Bloomberg) -- Symantec Corp.’s shares have slumped this year amid an internal accounting investigation and waning consumer interest in antivirus software for personal computers. Activist investor Starboard Value LP secured three board seats in a deal with the Mountain View, California-based company in September. Last week, the stock surged after a report that private equity firm Thoma Bravo had approached the cybersecurity company about a potential takeover.

Chief Executive Officer Greg Clark sat down with Bloomberg Television for an interview in San Francisco on Thursday.

Takeover report

"We take a long view at Symantec. We are here for the long haul and we invest in our technology and our employees and our customers and sometimes we get some headlines, rumors and speculation and our policy is not to comment."

Starboard’s involvement

"The individuals from Starboard are excellent. We have been working very well with them and I think we’re very happy with their contributions in the board room. Professionals like Dale Fuller have a great background in security, coming from McAfee and AVG, so he’s definitely been a big help. Rick Hill is a solid operator. We enjoy their contribution."

"We look forward to delivering against our guidance from our last conference call. We think we’ve got a very good set-up in our products and our technology. Starboard members are a great add and I think we’re focused on our customers, focused on the future of the business and happy with how things are going."

To contact the reporters on this story: Jeran Wittenstein in San Francisco at jwittenstei1@bloomberg.net;Selina Wang in San Francisco at swang533@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Catherine Larkin at clarkin4@bloomberg.net, Molly Schuetz

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