McAfee, Symantec Squabble Over Market Share Numbers

Posted 01/27/2012 at 10:47am | by Paul Lilly

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The hardest part about watching a nerd fight is knowing which side to root for. Such is the position we find ourselves in as two security giants squabble over claims the other is making. What started the whole thing was Symantec telling Reuters in an interview earlier this week that it was snatching up antivirus market share from competitor McAfee.

Symantec Chief Financial Officer James Beer made the claim on Wednesday, telling Reuters that several large accounts at McAfee had switched over. McAfee, which is now owned by Intel, says that's a bunch of hogwash.

"We are not aware of any major account that we lost to Symantec during the quarter," Edwared Hayden, McAfee Senior Vice President for Finance and Accounting, told Reuters.

Not only does McAfee refute Symantec's claim, the security firm points out it conducted a record level of business during its December quarter, during which time it secured its biggest deal ever and added more sales exceeding $1 million than it had in any other quarter to date.