TORONTO — As Network Associates Inc. (NA) attempts to reacquire the remaining shares of McAfee.com, Network Associates Canada has made a change at the top.
NA Canada
general manager Gus Malezis, who was brought onboard as regional director of sales more than four-years ago by then GM Gary Collins, has been promoted to senior vice president, McAfee, corporate brand management. Malezis will be working predominantly at NA’s headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., but said he will remain a resident of Toronto.
Jack Sebbag, NA Canada’s regional director of sales for Eastern Canada and the federal government, has been tapped as Malezis’ replacement despite being 40 minutes late for the job interview.
“”Being late for appointments is usually not good,”” Malezis said. “”He did not even call to tell us he was going to be late. But, he was extremely concerned about his customer. With McAfee you have to respond quickly. It is a time-based business.””
One of Sebbag’s first priorities will be to grow the retail presence of NA in Canada through its subscription-based service.
The retail side is one of the more profitable areas at NA, Malezis said. Retail for NA requires simplicity, he said. The company has added an embedded policy manager tool that can combat viruses such as Nimda, which last year spread at a rate of 6,100 devices per hour.
“”With the embedded policy manager if Nimda attacks a pop up will come up and say: Do you want to run it?””
Malezis added that when Nimda hit, small office/home office users went out and bought NA products are Costco or FutureShop because their licence expired. With a subscription, these users would have been immediately updated when the company improved its virus scanning technology or had a new configuration, he said.
Malezis and Sebbag want to grow the retail side of the business 30 to 40 per cent in the next two years.
Currently, 75 per cent of NA customers have a licence from the shrink-wrapped product at retail and the remaining 25 per cent have signed up for the subscription service. The subscription service, however, has doubled since last year. Currently, NA has more than two million subscribers and is one of the largest application service provider services in the world, Malezis claimed.
As for McAfee.com, this area is the consumer part of NA’s business. The company owns about 90 per cent of McAfee.com, while the remaining shares are public.
McAfee.com stockholders have been offered 0.78 of a share of Network Associates common stock in a tax-free exchange for each outstanding share of McAfee.com Class A common stock.
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