Vincent Pilette today was named chief executive at Symantec Corp.’s former consumer cybersecurity division, now known as NortonLifeLock Inc.

NortonLifeLock came into existence earlier this week following the completion of Broadcom Inc.’s acquisition of Symantec’s enterprise security business, a deal that was first announced in August. Under the terms of the acquisition, Broadcom took the rights to the Symantec brand, hence the new company name.

The new CEO of NortonLifeLock was named as the company reported its financial results for the first time as a separate entity, and it did very well, beating Wall Street’s forecasts on both earnings and revenue.

For the second quarter, NortonLifeLock reported a profit before certain costs such as stock compensation of 46 cents per share on revenue of $1.19 billion. Wall Street had forecast a 42-cent profit on revenue of $1.18 billion.

“We have taken important steps to set our company on a successful path forward and now, as we begin our transition to a pure play consumer cyber safety company, we have greater flexibility to expand our consumer business and deliver enhanced value to our stakeholders,” said Pilette (pictured), who served as chief financial officer at Symantec before it sold off its enterprise business.

Pilette also spoke about his plans for the company, saying it needs to eliminate $1.3 billion in costs. The company has already made moves toward doing that, reducing its staff headcount by 8% in the most recent quarter, and putting five of its corporate campuses up for sale.

“The focus on execution and optimization of our cost structure will enable us to fund many growth initiatives,” Pilette said on the earnings call.

Those growth initiatives include expanding the firm’s Norton 360 security suite membership, expanding outside of the U.S. and converting partner subscribers into direct subscribers.

NortonLifeLock could definitely do with some help on the customer acquisition front, since its user base held steady at 20.1 million in the quarter just gone. But that’s an improvement, marking the first quarter in several years that the company didn’t lose direct customers, Pilette noted.

For the coming quarter, NortonLifeLock expects earnings of 5 to 10 cents per share,on revenue of $602 million to $612 million.

“It’s rare to see a company of the size of NortonLifeLock being launched, and so expectations on how it should perform are somewhat open,” said Constellation Research Inc. analyst Holger Mueller. “What is clear is that the whole spin off was put in place to create a focus on consumer security products – a growing market – into which the new CEO and management team must now make inroads and demonstrate a successful go-to-market strategy. The next quarter will be the first step towards it.”

Photo: Logitech