What do the global distributors think of Symantec's Broadcom growing pains?

Nima Green
28 November 2019

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Earlier this month, Symantec's colossal $10.7bn merger with Broadcom was finalised.

Just a week later, pan-EMEA VAD Nuvias confirmed to CPI that it was no longer distributing Symantec in Europe, replacing it with Romanian cybersecurity firm, Bitdefender.

When asked why, CMO Hanspeter Eiselt said:

"Symantec is not in our portfolio. They seem to have a different distribution strategy."

The news that Nuvias sought a replacement for Symantec so quickly followed reports the US cybersecurity vendor's channel business had been hit with a flurry of senior exec exits in the wake of Broadcom taking the reins.

In Europe, Symantec's former central European channel sales boss, Kira Zaytsev, and country director Germany, Thomas Hoffmann, have both left in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, in California, there have been hundreds of layoffs last month as part of a $100m restructuring plan.

Symantec's sale has meanwhile stoked rumours that Broadcom plans to take the security vendor's largest 1,500 customers direct, which will consequently cut out the channel.

In addition to Nuvias, three other top disties have told CPI, on and off the record, that Broadcom's strategy of "a great deal of silence" is doing nothing to dispel these concerns.

Swiss security VAD Infinigate is among those who think that Broadcom needs to engage with its partners on what will happen next.

"I think there's quite a bit of silence in the market right now, which is not good," CEO Klaus Schlichtherle said.

"So you don't get any official statements from them right now. We work with Symantec only in the Nordics, so we don't have a lot of really close contacts into their management."

Schlichtherle said that the VAD is already experiencing delays in some orders.

"And for us, it's a little bit difficult to find out actually what's going on. We saw a couple of operational hiccups, which I do think is typical for situations like this when you're selling off to a bigger entity.

"But what we see actually is that the end user demand is still strong. So their orders are coming in, but sometimes you cannot really process them. Strategically, tactically, what they're up to? I really don't know."

Two other spokespeople for global distributors have also spoken to CPI off the record.

One said that the merger will present a good opportunity for Symantec and Broadcom to shake up the market.

"I'm really excited by some of the things that are happening. It's a really good opportunity to develop their business," he said.

"Personally I think it's going to be positive for the channel."

However, another said that while Broadcom does have the chance to streamline Symantec's business, the uncertainty caused by not communicating how they plan to do so is not helpful.

"Yes, there's definitely huge uncertainty. And I've seen that channel people are leaving in droves.

"Within our business there's been a view that the Symantec business most probably will not continue as it has... Those are definitely the undertones of what we've been hearing," they said.

"Effectively you will have to be a Broadcom partner to continue with that business. But either way, one of the big frustrations in the market, generally, is the lack of communication on what is coming."

Broadcom was approached for comment for this story but did not reply by the time of publication.