Computer security company Symantec is making its interim CEO its permanent CEO.
Michael Brown has been running the company since March this year when Steve Bennett was fired by the board less than a year into the job. He was the second CEO to be let go from the company in two years. While he led Symantec, Bennett conducted a major reorganization of the company.
The reorganization was needed after the company, once a major name in the PC antivirus space, failed to replicate its earlier success on the mobile desktop.
In the past six months, Brown has brought “energy and intensity” to the business and made “significant improvements to Symantec’s operating and financial performance,” the company said.
Brown was charged with turning around sagging revenue and profits, and Symantec says it has returned to year-on-year revenue growth since he took over. In the next 30 days, he will offer his plan for going forward, which has as its main aims an increase in shareholder value and focus on customers.
He came to Symantec as a result of its merger with Veritas Software in July 2005.