Symantec sees slowdown in security sales

06.05.2009

Symantec's rival McAfee bucked general economic trends last week, reporting that its sales were up 21 percent year-over-year.

Another factor affecting Symantec's earnings was a $413 million goodwill writedown. Symantec has acquired dozens of companies over the past few years, and it began analyzing and writing off some of the goodwill value on its books in late 2009. That analysis is now complete, the company said.