Veritas Cuts Sales Staff, Solution Providers Say

Officials at Veritas, based here, declined to comment. The reported layoffs come about a week after the departure of Don Foster, vice president of channel sales at the company.

The job cuts included at least two technical engineers and one sales engineer per sales territory, said one solution provider, who wished to remain anonymous. "Veritas has too many salespeople compared to its revenue," the solution provider said. "There are no more elephants to hunt. They are [now] looking for $20,000 deals, whereas in the past they were looking for million-dollar deals."

Another solution provider said the layoffs occurred late last week and early this week and added that more layoffs are expected. The solution provider, who also requested anonymity, said that at the end of 2002, Veritas sales reps worked hard to close deals to make themselves look good because they knew that job cuts were coming.

Still, the channel stands to benefit from the reported sales staff layoffs because Veritas will be more dependent on partners, the solution provider said. "We should be able to get more business from them," the source said.

Both of the solution providers, who work with Veritas and whose businesses specialize in storage, said Foster's post was eliminated and his duties would be absorbed by another Veritas executive. Veritas officials confirmed Foster's departure but declined to say if he resigned or was asked to leave.

Veritas easily could lay off a third of its sales force, another solution provider said. "There's a lot of dead wood there, like there was at Sun [Microsystems] two years ago," said the solution provider, who asked not to be identified.