Symantec-Veritas Appoints Integration Team

Although the merger will not be finalized until the second quarter, executives from both companies are already beginning to take on specific tasks. For instance, Veritas CEO Garry Bloom will be responsible for all customer facing sales operating, including the channel, once the two companies are combined.

Jeremy Burton, Veritas executive vice president for data management, meanwhile, will report to John Schwartz, currently president and COO of Symantec.

But other executive decisions will be left to the transition team management, including whether Thomas Kendra, Symantec senior vice president for worldwide sales, or Art Matin, Veritas executive vice president for worldwide sales, will lead the combined companies' sales effort. And once that decision is made, the combined companies will address which executive will ultimately run the channel programs for the combined entity. The current worldwide head of channel sales for Symantec is Allyson Seelinger. The previous head of channel sales for Veritas, Michael Sotnik, recently resigned to join SAP.

"Right now we're going through the process of sorting out what the next level down of the management team looks like," said Veritas CEO Gary Bloom. "But when it comes to sales, that's one of the areas you really can't have a discussion about until the deal closes."

Earlier this week the two companies hired PricewaterhouseCoopers and Bain and Company to consult on the integration process.

"We had said we would do a beauty contest between different integration firms," Bloom said. "We ended up hiring two. PriceWaterhouseCoopers will do the back end integration and Bain will do the front end customer facing work including sales, channels and consulting."