Symantec CFO: License Slowdown Spells Opportunity

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (TheStreet -- Symantec(SYMC) sufffered declining license sales in its fourth quarter, but Chief Financial Officer James Beer believes it can turn the trend to its favor.

The software maker noted a year-over-year decline in its license sales as more customers opted for subscription-based offerings. The shift, it said, caused fourth-quarter revenue and earnings to duck below its expectations.

Symantec reported fourth-quarter results on Wednesday.

"In the fourth quarter I would say that that trend developed a bit quicker than we expected relative to the overall software business," explained Symantec's Beer, in an interview with TheStreet. "We're very much working with that trend when you look at the new offerings that we're putting in the marketplace."

Symantec, he added, will continue to develop its core license-based business, but will put more effort into increasingly popular cloud-based subscription services.

The CFO pointed, for example, to Symantec's O3 technology, which lets enterprises manage their employees' access to cloud services.