But longtime CEO John Thompson retired in April, handing over his job to Enrique Salem, who says he wants to run a more focused company that spends less energy on acquisitions and more on integrating existing products. And Salem sees software-as-a-service (SaaS) playing a much larger role in the next few years as the company builds on its US$700 million acquisition of Message Labs.

Salem first came to Symantec as the eighth software developer hired by Peter Norton 18 years ago. After leaving to pursue new ventures, he returned when Symantec bought his antispam company, Brightmail, in 2004. Symantec's president and CEO met with the IDG News Service recently to lay out his vision. Following is an edited version of the interview.

IDG News Service: You've said that software-as-a-service will make up 15 percent of Symantec's business in five years. What percentage is it now?

Enrique Salem: It's probably 5 or 6 percent.

IDGNS: How are you going to get there? What's the next thing that's going to roll into this Message Labs product line?