Symantec cuts Australian R&D staff

Symantec has made an undisclosed number of redundancies in its Australian software development and product engineering unit in North Sydney.

"We are making some redundancies within one of our engineering teams based in North Sydney," the security vendor said in a statement. No customer-facing staff in Australia would be cut, the company said. 

The statement somewhat oddly said that cutting staff would  "improve productivity and drive operational efficiencies."

The vendor said it was yet to complete negotiations with affected staff.

"We are exploring the viability of alternative employment options within the organisation," the company said.

The vendor said it will still keep some R&D roles at the North Sydney site. 

The company was expected to inform those affected today, according to The Australian. 

The security giant will outsource software engineering work to India as part of a global consolidation effort, according to The Australian report, which added that Australia’s strong dollar influenced the decision to close the unit.

Although Symantec’s 19 percent share of the global security software market helped it retain its leadership in the field, revenue growth was relatively flat last year, according to analyst firm Gartner. 

In 2008 Symantec paid US$262 million for the privately-held Australian security vendor, PC Tools, according to its most recent SEC 10K filing.