Symantec's cost reduction efforts began this week but company officials are keeping mum on the number of employees affected in Australia and New Zealand, as well as other markets.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based security and database management software maker in January set a goal to reduce its cost structure by US$200 million. As part of that, an unspecified number of employees are now being let go, Melissa Martin, a Symantec US spokesperson, said Thursday.
Meanwhile, Sydney-based spokesperson for Symantec Asia-Pacific Debbie Sassine could not comment on the local impact but said the company had identified a number of areas to achieve a 5 percent cost reduction in headcount globally.
Neither would reveal the total number of employees affected by the layoffs.
Symantec employs about 17,500 people worldwide.
CNET News.com's Joris Evers contributed to this report.
