Symantec executive hopes sales rise to $10b by 2010

BARCELONA -- Software maker Symantec Corp. aims to double its annual sales to $10 billion by 2010, with 10 percent of revenues coming from services, its chief executive said yesterday.

``We'll still maintain our position of being the fourth-biggest independent software company in the world or, if we're lucky, move up a step or two," John Thompson told the annual ETRE technology conference in Barcelona.

Thompson said that Symantec, the world's biggest maker of security software, was interested in further, medium-size acquisitions after buying storage software maker Veritas for $10.3 billion last year.

``Buying technologies is one thing, but buying real businesses is another, because you are forced to pay attention to them," Thompson said. ``If they are $75 to $100 million in sales, that's real money; that gives us leverage."

He added, however: ``Having a relevant piece of cool technology will never be something we'll turn our back on."

Thompson admitted he was worried about the threat from Microsoft, which is pushing into the consumer security software market and recently announced a network security partnership with Cisco Systems Inc.

He called on Microsoft not to try to force its customers to use Microsoft's own security software when it releases its new Windows operating system, called Vista, which is slated for later this year.

``We want for Microsoft not to control how customers get their security," he said.