Gen Digital Inc (GEN) 2023 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for standing by. My name is Matt, and I will be your conference operator today. I would like to welcome everyone to Gen's Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2023 Earnings Call. Today's call is being recorded. (Operator Instructions)

大家下午好。謝謝你的支持。我叫馬特，今天我將擔任你們的會議操作員。我謹歡迎大家參加 Gen 2023 財年第二季財報電話會議。今天的通話正在錄音。 （操作員說明）

At this time, for opening remarks, I would like to pass the call over to Ms. Mary Lai, Head of Investor Relations. Miss, you may begin.

現在，我想將電話轉給投資人關係主管Mary Lai女士致開幕詞。小姐，您可以開始了。

Thank you, Matt, and good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Gen's first earnings call. Joining me today to review our second quarter fiscal year 2023 results are Vincent Pilette, CEO; and Natalie Derse, CFO. As a reminder, there will be a replay of this call posted on the IR website, along with our slides and press release.

謝謝你，馬特，大家下午好。歡迎參加 Gen 的第一次財報電話會議。今天與我一起回顧我們 2023 財年第二季業績的是執行長文森特·皮萊特 (Vincent Pilette)；和財務長 Natalie Derse。謹此提醒，IR 網站上將發布本次電話會議的重播，以及我們的投影片和新聞稿。

I'd like to remind everyone that during this call, all references to the financial measures are non-GAAP and all growth rates are year-over-year unless otherwise stated. A reconciliation of non-GAAP to GAAP measures is included in our press release, which is available on the IR website at investors.gendigital.com.

我想提醒大家，在這次電話會議中，除非另有說明，所有提及的財務指標均非公認會計原則，所有增長率均為同比增長率。我們的新聞稿包含非 GAAP 與 GAAP 衡量指標的調整表，可在 IR 網站 Investors.gendigital.com 上查看。

Today's call contains statements regarding our business, financial performance and operations, including the impact of our business industry that may be considered forward-looking statements and such statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Those statements are based on current beliefs, assumptions and expectations and speak only as of the current date. For more information, please refer to the cautionary statement in our press release and the risk factors in our filings with the SEC and in particular, our most recent reports on Form 10-K and 10-Q.

今天的電話會議包含有關我們的業務、財務業績和營運的聲明，包括我們的商業行業的影響，這些聲明可能被視為前瞻性聲明，並且此類聲明涉及可能導致實際結果與我們當前預期存在重大差異的風險和不確定性。這些陳述是基於當前的信念、假設和期望，並且僅代表當前日期。欲了解更多信息，請參閱我們新聞稿中的警示聲明以及我們向 SEC 提交的文件中的風險因素，特別是我們最新的 10-K 表格和 10-Q 表格報告。

And now I will turn the call over to our CEO, Vincent?

現在我將把電話轉給我們的執行長文森特？

Thank you, Mary, and welcome, everyone, to our first earnings call at Gen Digital. In many ways, we are a new company, better positioned as a leader in Cyber Safety and with an expanded purpose of powering Digital Freedom for everyone. Our mission is to create technology solutions for people to take full advantage of the digital world safely, privately and confidently.

謝謝瑪麗，歡迎大家參加 Gen Digital 的第一次財報電話會議。從很多方面來說，我們都是一家新公司，作為網路安全領域的領導者，我們的定位更好，並擁有為每個人提供數位自由的擴展目標。我們的使命是創建技術解決方案，讓人們安全、私密且自信地充分利用數位世界。

Let me tell you a little bit about why we created Gen. Generations today are normally associated with age, such as Gen X, Gen Y or Gen Z, but all generations, no matter what your age, are connected by one thing. We are all digital, generation digital. We shop, bank, learn, socialize online. And that is just today. We have reimagined what the future will bring and what we can bring to Generation D.

讓我告訴你一些關於我們創建Gen的原因。 今天的世代通常與年齡相關，例如X世代、Y世代或Z世代，但所有世代，無論你的年齡多大，都透過一件事聯繫在一起。我們都是數位化的，數位化的世代。我們在網上購物、辦理銀行業務、學習、社交。這就是今天。我們重新構想了未來以及我們能為 D 世代帶來什麼。

Digital technology and innovation bring tremendous benefits to consumers in ways we could never have imagined, but they also make our world more complex, more demanding, more exposed. They have created new threats and challenges. Hacking has become a profession. The dark web is a black market used by bad actors and the challenges are not limited to hacking, scamming or phishing. Our personal data is exposed everywhere, and algorithms are influencing our reasoning.

數位科技和創新以我們無法想像的方式為消費者帶來了巨大的好處，但它們也讓我們的世界變得更加複雜、要求更高、暴露得更加頻繁。他們創造了新的威脅和挑戰。駭客已經成為一種職業。暗網是不良行為者使用的黑市，面臨的挑戰不僅限於駭客攻擊、詐騙或網路釣魚。我們的個人資料無所不在，演算法正在影響我們的推理。

Safety, of course, remains an absolute requisite for protecting our digital lives and fully benefiting from the digital world we live in. Protecting online security is how we got started 30 years ago, and it's still at the heart of what we do today, but that's not enough anymore. At Gen, we are committing to bring our credibility, our passion, our innovation to step up and boldly tackle new challenges, powering digital freedom for everyone.

當然，安全仍然是保護我們的數位生活並充分受益於我們所生活的數位世界的絕對必要條件。還不夠。在 Gen，我們致力於利用我們的信譽、熱情和創新來大膽地應對新挑戰，為每個人提供數位自由。

Gen is now the leader that consumers trust to deliver comprehensive digital protection and empowerment in the digital world. We are now united by our family of trusted brands, including Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner. These amazing brands have and will continue to spend generations with products and solutions that suit different lifestyles and life stages.

Gen 現在是消費者信賴的領導者，能夠在數位世界中提供全面的數位保護和賦權。現在，我們由值得信賴的品牌家族團結在一起，包括 Norton、Avast、LifeLock、Avi​​ra、AVG、ReputationDefender 和 CCleaner。這些令人驚嘆的品牌已經並將繼續花費幾代人的時間提供適合不同生活方式和生命階段的產品和解決方案。

We will also focus on trust-based solutions that will do more than just help people around the world live fuller, safer digital lives today. We will help define what it means to be freely in the digital world of tomorrow.

我們還將專注於基於信任的解決方案，這些解決方案不僅可以幫助世界各地的人們過著更充實、更安全的數位生活。我們將幫助定義在未來的數位世界中自由意味著什麼。

As you know, Gen is dual headquartered in both the U.S. and Czech, giving us the benefits of a truly global talented team located across America, Europe and Asia. We have a purpose-driven culture with an innovative mindset. We have products and solutions in over 150 countries with an omnichannel distribution strategy, and we are trusted by over 500 million users around the world.

如您所知，Gen 在美國和捷克設有雙重總部，這使我們受益於遍布美洲、歐洲和亞洲的真正的全球人才團隊。我們擁有目標驅動的文化和創新思維。我們的產品和解決方案遍佈150多個國家，並採用全通路分銷策略，受到全球超過5億用戶的信賴。

It is critically important to us to provide a seamless integrated Cyber Safety portfolio with best-in-class functionalities and products that are easy to use and consumer-friendly.

對我們來說，提供無縫整合的網路安全產品組合至關重要，該產品組合具有一流的功能和易於使用且對消費者友好的產品。

Before I share more about the quarter, let me talk a little bit about our integration. We closed the Avast acquisition on September 12, and we are off to a great start. We have announced our new organizational design and leadership teams to help drive the next chapter of this company. On November 1, we merged our back-end systems and have detailed technology and integration road maps.

在分享有關本季度的更多資訊之前，讓我先談談我們的整合。我們於 9 月 12 日完成了對 Avast 的收購，這是一個很好的開始。我們宣布了新的組織設計和領導團隊，以幫助推動公司的新篇章。 11月1日，我們合併了後端系統，並有詳細的技術和整合路線圖。

As a result, we have increased our annual savings to over $300 million, and we believe we will be fully completed within the next 18 months.

因此，我們每年節省的成本已超過 3 億美元，我們相信我們將在未來 18 個月內全面完成。

With the combined go-to-market, leveraging a powerful set of trusted brands, we are focused on the opportunity to deliver more value to our current customers across our brands. We know that higher engagement leads to growth in ARPU and growth in retention for our nearly 65 million Cyber Safety customers, which includes both paid direct and partners.

透過聯合上市，利用一系列強大的值得信賴的品牌，我們專注於為我們各品牌的現有客戶提供更多價值。我們知道，更高的參與度會帶來 ARPU 的成長以及我們近 6,500 萬網路安全客戶（包括直接付費客戶和合作夥伴）的留任率成長。

As of today, we have identified initiatives that are revenue synergy opportunities of about $200 million in the next 2 years, giving us additional confidence in our ability to sustain a mid-single-digit growth rate in the midterm. While an integration is never easy for the team, we are collectively very motivated by the opportunity in front of us.

截至今天，我們已經確定了未來 2 年內收入協同機會約為 2 億美元的舉措，這讓我們對自己在中期維持中個位數成長率的能力更有信心。雖然整合對團隊來說絕非易事，但我們都對眼前的機會充滿動力。

Now let me move to our Q2 results. I will provide a high-level summary, and then Natalie will spend more time walking you through our detailed results and the reporting structure post acquisition.

現在讓我談談第二季的業績。我將提供高級摘要，然後娜塔莉將花更多時間向您介紹我們的詳細結果和收購後的報告結構。

Supported by our strong execution in a challenging environment, we delivered our 13th consecutive quarter of growth, with Q2 bookings up 11% and revenue up 12% in constant currency, which includes 7 percentage points of contribution from Avast. Excluding Avast, our Cyber Safety bookings revenue grew 5% in constant currency, in line with our mid-single-digit growth expectation. Earnings grew 5% or 12% excluding the impact of currency headwinds.

在充滿挑戰的環境中強大執行力的支持下，我們實現了連續 13 個季度的增長，第二季度預訂量增長 11%，按固定匯率計算收入增長 12%，其中 Avast 貢獻了 7 個百分點。不包括 Avast，我們的網路安全預訂收入按固定匯率計算增長了 5%，符合我們的中個位數成長預期。排除貨幣逆風的影響，獲利成長 5% 或 12%。

Our market leadership, our strong customer loyalty and the continued increase in value we delivered to our product innovation and membership adoption enable us in the current economic environment to really tackle the business from a position of strength.

我們的市場領導地位、強大的客戶忠誠度以及我們為產品創新和會員採用帶來的價值的持續增加，使我們能夠在當前的經濟環境中真正以優勢地位處理業務。

At the core, we are a technology and product company. And one thing that will not change is our continued pursuit for a faster pace of innovation and build out of our product portfolio. Combining our offering with Avast gives us the most comprehensive product portfolio featuring a full coverage of Cyber Safety needs. We are the first to offer a fully-integrated platform covering device security and performance, data and cloud security, identity protection, personal privacy and reputation management.

從本質上講，我們是一家技術和產品公司。不會改變的一件事是我們不斷追求更快的創新步伐並建立我們的產品組合。我們的產品與 Avast 結合，為我們提供了最全面的產品組合，全面涵蓋網路安全需求。我們是第一個提供涵蓋設備安全和效能、資料和雲端安全、身分保護、個人隱私和聲譽管理的完全整合平台的公司。

Before the acquisition, over 60% of our customers had taken a membership or platform approach using Norton 360. Now with Avast, we approximately have 35% of our customers having adopting a platform, giving us the opportunity to offer another 15 million customers the benefits of a feature-rich platform.

在收購之前，超過 60% 的客戶已使用 Norton 360 採取會員或平台方式。平台。

While we are making fast progress on the technology front and the product integration front, we remain focused on the pace of our product releases, whether they are new products, new functionalities or platform upgrades. We continue to make strong inroads with our privacy solutions. In Q2, AntiTrack expanded its capabilities to additional browsers and countries and we launched our privacy monitoring assistance, or PMA solution into retail channel for the first time.

雖然我們在技術方面和產品整合方面取得了快速進展，但我們仍然專注於產品發布的節奏，無論是新產品、新功能還是平台升級。我們繼續在隱私解決方案方面取得重大進展。在第二季度，AntiTrack 將其功能擴展到更多瀏覽器和國家/地區，我們首次在零售通路中推出了隱私監控輔助或 PMA 解決方案。

In the identity pillar, we continued our international expansion and launched our ID Advisor Plus offering to more European countries, including Germany and France. We have also launched several new enhancements to the U.S. LifeLock experience, including guided child credit fees. We also launched e-mail gradient with Avast, a new feature capable of filtering malicious e-mails with no endpoints present independent of Avast used.

在身分支柱方面，我們繼續進行國際擴張，並向更多歐洲國家（包括德國和法國）推出了 ID Advisor Plus 產品。我們也針對美國 LifeLock 體驗推出了幾項新的增強功能，包括引導兒童信貸費用。我們還推出了 Avast 電子郵件梯度功能，這是一項新功能，能夠過濾惡意電子郵件，且不存在獨立於所使用的 Avast 的端點。

The new online safety score provides regular feedback on the user's digital habits and personalized tips to help them take charge of their online safety. Finally, we are also very pleased by the performance of the Avast security engine, which scored top marks in leading independent tests. Overall, the Avast team brings a lot of technology know-how and an innovation mindset around human-centric Cyber Safety, which makes our combination even richer for consumers.

新的線上安全評分提供有關用戶數位習慣的定期回饋和個人化提示，以幫助他們掌控自己的線上安全。最後，我們對 Avast 安全引擎的性能也感到非常滿意，它在領先的獨立測試中獲得了最高分。總體而言，Avast 團隊圍繞著以人為本的網路安全帶來了大量的技術知識和創新思維，這使我們的組合為消費者提供了更豐富的體驗。

Expanding our ability to reach customers is equally important. Gen is now a house of brands with diversified set of sales channels and a business model that spans from freemium to premium. Direct-to-consumer business remains the main channel for us today. Despite macroeconomic pressure that showed in global e-commerce traffic through the quarter, we're able to grow bookings 3% in our direct-to-consumer business. We strategically deployed our marketing spend, focusing on higher ARPU versus customer counts. We believe that this is the right way to deploy our marketing spend in this current environment and we will continue to adapt to deliver the most efficient and highest returns on our investment.

擴大我們接觸客戶的能力也同樣重要。 Gen 現在是一個擁有多元化銷售管道和從免費增值到高端的商業模式的品牌之家。直接面向消費者的業務仍然是我們今天的主要管道。儘管本季全球電子商務流量面臨宏觀經濟壓力，但我們的直接面向消費者業務的預訂量仍實現了 3% 的成長。我們策略性地部署了行銷支出，重點關注更高的 ARPU 與客戶數量。我們相信，這是在當前環境下部署行銷支出的正確方式，我們將繼續適應，以提供最有效和最高的投資回報。

On the partner side, we continue to expand geographically, delivering another double-digit growth quarter. Our value proposition of complete Cyber Safety, including security, identity and privacy protection is taking root. As an example, we're excited to have launched our identity offering for a large British telco provider expanding our effort of identity protection for the U.K. market and replicating the success we have had in Canada.

在合作夥伴方面，我們持續擴大地域範圍，再次實現兩位數的季度成長。我們關於完整網路安全（包括安全、身分和隱私保護）的價值主張正在紮根。舉例來說，我們很高興為一家大型英國電信提供商推出了我們的身份產品，擴大了我們在英國市場的身份保護工作，並複製了我們在加拿大的成功。

As Gen, we have expanded our customer universe but that is a small step towards our mission to protect and empower every one of the 5 billion global Internet users. Today, we have over 500 million total users, including paid and free customers. One layer down, we have a new classification of paid Cyber Safety, towing about 65 million customers that is made up roughly of 39 million paid direct customers and over 25 million paid customers from our partner business.

作為Gen，我們已經擴大了我們的客戶範圍，但這只是朝著我們保護和增強全球 50 億互聯網用戶中每一位用戶的使命邁出的一小步。如今，我們的用戶總數超過 5 億，包括付費和免費客戶。再往下一層，我們有一個新的付費網路安全分類，吸引了約 6,500 萬客戶，其中約 3,900 萬名付費直接客戶和超過 2,500 萬來自我們合作夥伴業務的付費客戶。

And while our direct customers count declined by roughly 60,000 quarter-over-quarter on the NortonLifeLock side and 190,000 on the Avast side, our short-term focus and opportunity coming out of the acquisition is to work on the increasing -- on increasing the value for millions of our customers and consequently their satisfaction and retention rate.

雖然 NortonLifeLock 方面的直接客戶數量環比下降了大約 60,000 名，Avast 方面的直接客戶數量環比下降了 190,000 名，但我們的短期重點和收購帶來的機會是致力於增加價值為我們數以百萬計的客戶提供服務，從而提高他們的滿意度和保留率。

While paid direct customer count is an important metric, it is also important to highlight that we have multiple levers to drive booking growth in more diversified ways such as growing in ARPU with the opportunity of cross-selling new products, growing in memberships, offering a platform approach to Cyber Safety and growing in retention rates, especially on the Avast side, supported by our best-in-class support and services organization.

雖然付費直接客戶數量是一個重要指標，但同樣重要的是要強調，我們有多種槓桿以更多元化的方式推動預訂成長，例如透過交叉銷售新產品的機會來增加ARPU、增加會員數量、提供在我們一流的支援和服務組織的支持下，網路安全平台方法和保留率不斷提高，尤其是 Avast 方面。

Post acquisition, we have about 2/3 of our customers that benefit mainly from a broadly defined security offering. As a result of the acquisition, our aggregated monthly ARPU is now $7 per customer. And we have -- as we have done before, we believe we have the opportunity to demonstrate the need for a comprehensive Cyber Safety approach, including cross-selling identity and privacy solutions from a richer portfolio and increase ARPU over time.

收購後，我們約 2/3 的客戶主要受益於廣泛定義的安全產品。收購完成後，我們每月的 ARPU 總額現在為每位客戶 7 美元。正如我們之前所做的那樣，我們相信我們有機會展示對全面網路安全方法的需求，包括在交叉銷售更豐富的產品組合中的身份和隱私解決方案，並隨著時間的推移提高 ARPU。

As I mentioned, our platform strength continues to be a cornerstone of our strategy. We have over 14 million members with a membership plan for Norton 360, Avast One or Avira Prime. This represent approximately 35% of our direct customers and believe we have the opportunity to bring that ratio to over 50% over time as we did it at NortonLifeLock over the last 2 years. We have observed higher utilization, higher satisfaction and better retention for our customers that have subscribed to a membership and now benefits from our broad portfolio.

正如我所提到的，我們的平台優勢仍然是我們策略的基石。我們擁有超過 1,400 萬會員，並提供 Norton 360、Avast One 或 Avira Prime 會員方案。這約占我們直接客戶的 35%，並且相信隨著時間的推移，我們有機會將比例提高到 50% 以上，就像我們過去 2 年在 NortonLifeLock 所做的那樣。我們觀察到，訂閱會員資格並從我們廣泛的產品組合中受益的客戶的利用率更高，滿意度更高，保留率也更高。

Customer satisfaction is a very important metric at Gen. It is supported by consumer-centric approach to our innovation and the largest service organization in consumer Cyber Safety. As a result, our NortonLifeLock Direct customer renewed their membership at a retention rate of 85% plus. When including our Avast customer base and mobile customers, our aggregate retention rate is now 75%. This is an opportunity to cross-pollinate our operational know-how and offer a rich portfolio supporting by a global service organization to all of our 65 million customers whether direct or through partners. We see this as an opportunity to increase our 75% retention rate over the next 2 years.

客戶滿意度是 Gen 的一個非常重要的指標。結果，我們的 NortonLifeLock Direct 客戶續訂了會員資格，保留率高達 85% 以上。當包括我們的 Avast 客戶群和行動客戶時，我們的總保留率為 75%。這是一個機會，可以讓我們交叉傳播我們的營運專業知識，並透過全球服務組織直接或透過合作夥伴向我們所有 6500 萬客戶提供豐富的產品組合支援。我們認為這是一個在未來 2 年內提高 75% 保留率的機會。

In addition to our integration work, we have clean line of sight and priorities for our growth and operational initiatives. Taking into consideration what I just mentioned, we have identified $200 million of potential revenue synergies that should lead to growing ARPU and growing retention rates over the next 2 years. We have channel diversification initiatives focused on partnerships and new segments such as the Avast platform for small businesses. And we will prioritize the effectiveness of our marketing spend on bookings growth over direct customer count.

除了我們的整合工作之外，我們還對我們的成長和營運計劃有清晰的視線和優先事項。考慮到我剛才提到的內容，我們已經確定了 2 億美元的潛在收入協同效應，這應該會在未來 2 年內帶來 ARPU 的成長和保留率的成長。我們的通路多元化計畫專注於合作夥伴關係和新細分市場，例如針對小型企業的 Avast 平台。我們將優先考慮行銷支出對預訂成長的有效性，而不是直接客戶數量。

These revenue opportunities, combined with over $300 million of cost synergies should deliver tremendous value and create room to invest for the long-term opportunity. So as we look to the future, the current and potentially a recessionary economy does put downward pressure on some part of our business, but we also see this as an opportunity and a catalyst for us. I am confident with our high recurring revenue model, coupled with our operational discipline that our business will remain durable and flexible to navigate the short-term challenging environment.

這些收入機會與超過 3 億美元的成本協同效應相結合，應能帶來巨大的價值，並為長期機會創造投資空間。因此，當我們展望未來時，當前和潛在的衰退經濟確實給我們的某些業務帶來了下行壓力，但我們也認為這對我們來說是一個機會和催化劑。我對我們的高經常性收入模式以及我們的營運紀律充滿信心，我們的業務將保持持久和靈活，以應對短期充滿挑戰的環境。

At the end, we know that the need for comprehensive Cyber Safety and Digital Freedom is a secular growth trend, and we are the leader.

最後，我們知道對全面網路安全和數位自由的需求是一個長期成長趨勢，而我們是領導者。

And now let me turn the call over to Natalie to cover our results and new reporting details. Natalie?

現在讓我將電話轉給娜塔莉，介紹我們的結果和新的報告細節。娜塔莉？

Thank you, Vincent, and hello, everyone. It's a very exciting time for our company. We are thrilled to bring the Avast and NortonLifeLock businesses together and move forward as Gen. Our team is highly motivated to get started and bring our vast opportunities to market.

謝謝你，文森特，大家好。對於我們公司來說，這是一個非常令人興奮的時刻。我們很高興能夠將 Avast 和 NortonLifeLock 業務合併在一起，並作為 Gen 繼續前進。

For today's discussion, I will walk you through our Q2 results, outlook for Q3 and wrap up with details on our long-term model. I will focus on non-GAAP financials and year-over-year growth rates, unless otherwise stated. A reminder that our reported results also include a partial quarter of Avast, which was acquired on September 12, 2022.

在今天的討論中，我將向您介紹我們第二季的業績、第三季的前景，並詳細介紹我們的長期模型。除非另有說明，我將專注於非公認會計準則財務數據和同比增長率。請注意，我們報告的業績還包括 Avast 的部分季度，該公司於 2022 年 9 月 12 日收購。

Before we dive into the results, I would like to share how we evaluate and measure business performance as Gen. Gen is centered on Cyber Safety. Our product portfolio is split by consumer security, identity and information protection and our go-to-market omnichannel business lines are split by direct and partners.

在我們深入研究結果之前，我想先分享我們如何評估和衡量 Gen.Gen 以網路安全為中心的業務績效。我們的產品組合按消費者安全、身分和資訊保護劃分，我們的上市全通路業務線按直接和合作夥伴劃分。

Direct makes up about 90% of our business with subscriptions sold directly through our e-commerce sites or third-party app stores. We have further harmonized our direct channel definitions and aligned to industry standards now including NortonLifeLock mobile app store customers and revenue in this category.

直接銷售占我們業務的 90% 左右，訂閱直接透過我們的電子商務網站或第三方應用程式商店銷售。我們進一步協調了我們的直接管道定義，並與行業標準保持一致，現在包括諾頓LifeLock 行動應用程式商店客戶和此類別的收入。

Although partners only account for approximately 10% of our combined business, this channel remains an investment area for us as we further diversify our distribution models to provide multiple entry points for the consumer, including employee benefits, retailers, OEMs, telcos, service providers and small businesses.

儘管合作夥伴僅占我們合併業務的約10%，但隨著我們進一步多元化分銷模式，為消費者提供多個切入點，該管道仍然是我們的投資領域，包括員工福利、零售商、原始設備製造商、電信公司、服務供應商和小型企業。

With the combined focus on Cyber Safety and go-forward portfolio identified through the integration with the Avast, we have also carved out a legacy category, which includes end-of-life products or accident markets. In total, this makes up less than 3% of our overall revenue base, and we expect it to phase out over the next few quarters.

透過與 Avast 集成，我們將重點放在網路安全和前瞻性產品組合上，我們還開闢了一個遺留類別，其中包括報廢產品或事故市場。總的來說，這占我們總收入的不到 3%，我們預計它將在未來幾季逐步淘汰。

Going forward, our discussions will be focused on Cyber Safety growth. For more details on our reporting structure, I'd like to point you to Slide 13 in our earnings presentation.

展望未來，我們的討論將集中在網路安全的成長。有關我們報告結構的更多詳細信息，我想向您指出我們收益演示中的幻燈片 13。

Now on to our Q2 results. Q2 results reflect our consistent execution and focus on driving long-term sustainable growth. Q2 is our 13th consecutive quarter of bookings growth, supported by a healthy and robust customer base and strong unit economics.

現在來看我們第二季的結果。第二季的業績反映了我們一貫的執行力和對推動長期永續成長的關注。第二季是我們的預訂量連續第 13 季成長，這得益於健康穩健的客戶群和強勁的單位經濟效益。

Q2 bookings grew 11% in constant currency and was in line with our expectations. Excluding Avast, Cyber Safety bookings grew 5% in constant currency as we drove increased value through cross-sells in the Norton customer base and our key partner channels continue to scale, including identity-driven partnerships with international telcos and employee benefit partners in the U.S.

以固定匯率計算，第二季預訂量成長 11%，符合我們的預期。不包括Avast，網路安全預訂量以固定匯率計算增長了5%，因為我們透過諾頓客戶群的交叉銷售推動了價值的增加，並且我們的主要合作夥伴管道不斷擴大，包括與國際電信公司和美國員工福利夥伴的身份驅動夥伴關係。

Q2 non-GAAP reported revenue was $748 million, up 12% in constant currency and up 8% in USD. This includes a partial quarter of Avast, which contributed $48 million or 7 points of growth in constant currency. Similar to prior quarters, our top line growth includes an unfavorable impact of 4 points as a result of increased foreign exchange headwinds of over $30 million year-over-year. We expect this currency headwind to continue with both the euro and yen depreciating further against the U.S. dollar in recent weeks.

第二季非 GAAP 報告營收為 7.48 億美元，以固定匯率計算成長 12%，以美元計算成長 8%。其中包括 Avast 的部分季度，貢獻了 4,800 萬美元，以固定匯率計算增加了 7 個百分點。與前幾季類似，由於外匯不利因素年增超過 3,000 萬美元，我們的營收成長受到了 4 個百分點的不利影響。我們預計，隨著近幾週歐元和日圓兌美元進一步貶值，這種貨幣逆風將持續下去。

Despite volatile macroeconomic impacts, our Cyber Safety revenue, excluding Avast, continues to grow mid-single digits in constant currency, in line with expectations and, again, a reflection of our focused and consistent execution.

儘管宏觀經濟影響不穩定，但我們的網路安全收入（不包括 Avast）以固定匯率計算繼續實現中個位數成長，符合預期，並再次反映了我們專注和一致的執行力。

Stepping through our other key operating metrics. Direct revenue of $660 million grew 11% in constant currency and 7% in USD supported by cross-sell and other monetization initiatives with our existing customer base. Direct customer count went from $23.3 million reported at the end of Q1 as NortonLifeLock to $38.6 million at the end of Q2 as Gen, including approximately 15 million Cyber Safety customers from Avast.

逐步了解我們的其他關鍵營運指標。直接收入為 6.6 億美元，以固定匯率計算成長 11%，以美元計算成長 7%，這得益於我們現有客戶群的交叉銷售和其他貨幣化措施。直接客戶數量從第一季末 NortonLifeLock 報告的 2,330 萬美元增加到第二季末 Gen 的 3,860 萬美元，其中包括來自 Avast 的約 1,500 萬網路安全客戶。

Quarterly performance implied a combined decline of $252,000 quarter-over-quarter with $62,000 from NortonLifeLock and $190,000 from Avast. Both companies saw continued headwinds from lower global website traffic to our e-commerce site, impacting new online customer acquisition. But together with Avast, we now have an even larger opportunity to leverage our go-to-market efforts and further optimize our marketing investment across brands and SEO to drive up traffic and conversion.

季度業績意味著環比下降 252,000 美元，其中 NortonLifeLock 下降 62,000 美元，Avast 下降 190,000 美元。兩家公司都面臨電子商務網站全球網站流量下降的持續不利影響，影響了新線上客戶的取得。但與 Avast 合作，我們現在有更大的機會來利用我們的行銷工作，進一步優化我們跨品牌和 SEO 的行銷投資，以提高流量和轉換率。

Q2 direct monthly average revenue per user, or ARPU, was USD 6.98, which reflects a blended ARPU of NortonLifeLock and Avast combined with a vast ARPU of approximately $4.30 and mobile ARPU of approximately $2.50. Specifically for NortonLifeLock results, ARPU expanded over $0.30 year-over-year adjusted for FX.

第二季每用戶直接月平均收入 (ARPU) 為 6.98 美元，這反映了 NortonLifeLock 和 Avast 的混合 ARPU 加上約 4.30 美元的龐大 ARPU 和約 2.50 美元的行動 ARPU。特別是 NortonLifeLock 的業績，經外匯調整後，ARPU 年比成長超過 0.30 美元。

We are proud of the progress we've made in the last year, increasing the value provided to our existing customers through our cross-sell and upsell efforts and are excited to drive similar improvements with the Avast customer base. Our customer base remains loyal with NortonLifeLock retention stable at 85% exiting Q2. As we merge with Avast, our overall customer retention rate moves from 85% to 75% blended. We believe the 20-point retention differential between NortonLifeLock and Avast presents a large synergy opportunity to drive growth with our existing customer base. I will expand on this more as we discuss revenue synergies shortly. For further details on our performance metrics, please refer to Slide 14 in the earnings deck.

我們對去年的進步感到自豪，透過交叉銷售和追加銷售努力增加了為現有客戶提供的價值，並很高興能夠與 Avast 客戶群一起推動類似的改進。我們的客戶群仍然保持忠誠，第二季諾頓LifeLock 保留率穩定在 85%。隨著我們與 Avast 的合併，我們的整體客戶保留率從 85% 上升到 75%。我們相信 NortonLifeLock 和 Avast 之間 20 個百分點的保留差異提供了巨大的協同機會，可以推動我們現有客戶群的成長。當我們很快討論收入協同效應時，我將對此進行更多闡述。有關我們績效指標的更多詳細信息，請參閱收益報告中的幻燈片 14。

Moving on to partners. Partner revenue was $74 million, up 21% in constant currency and 16% in USD, impacted by 5 points of FX headwind. This is our eighth consecutive quarter of double-digit revenue growth in partners as we leverage this channel to extend our reach to consumers and broaden our product and geo expansion efforts. We will continue to invest in this omnichannel strategy, specifically in telco and retail partnerships that drive distribution of our expanded portfolio offerings, employee benefits were Cyber Safety and identity protection is essential to the employees' lives and through small businesses where entrepreneurs can scale their businesses with peace of mind knowing they are digitally protected. Partners will remain a key cornerstone of our investments going forward.

轉向合作夥伴。受到 5 個百分點的外匯逆風影響，合作夥伴收入為 7,400 萬美元，以固定匯率計算成長 21%，以美元計算成長 16%。這是我們在合作夥伴中連續第八個季度實現兩位數收入成長，因為我們利用這一管道擴大了對消費者的影響力，並擴大了我們的產品和地理擴張工作。我們將繼續投資於這種全通路策略，特別是電信和零售合作夥伴關係，這些合作夥伴關係推動我們擴展的產品組合的分銷、員工福利、網路安全和身分保護對員工的生活至關重要，並透過小型企業讓創業家擴大業務規模知道它們受到數位保護，讓您高枕無憂。合作夥伴仍將是我們未來投資的關鍵基石。

Turning to profitability. Q2 operating income was $388 million, up 7% year-over-year with partial results from Avast. We continue to run G&A lean at roughly 4% of revenue, which provides the operating leverage to invest in sales and marketing and R&D. We remain disciplined in our cost structure with margins flat year-over-year.

轉向盈利能力。第二季營業收入為 3.88 億美元，年增 7%，部分業績來自 Avast。我們繼續以約 4% 的收入精益管理管理費用，這為投資銷售、行銷和研發提供了營運槓桿。我們在成本結構方面保持嚴格，利潤率與去年同期持平。

Looking ahead as Gen, we will strike the right balance on investments across our expanded portfolio and channels and will be intentional on how we spend in order to drive the highest returns across the markets, channels and customers we serve.

展望未來，作為Gen，我們將在擴大的投資組合和管道中實現適當的投資平衡，並將有意識地關注我們的支出方式，以便在我們服務的市場、通路和客戶中實現最高回報。

Q2 net income was $269 million, up 5% compared to last year. Diluted EPS was $0.45 for the quarter, up 5% year-over-year or 12% in constant currency, including $0.03 of currency headwind. Please note that this reflects partial dilution from the $94 million of Avast share issuance and higher cost of our debt. And our non-GAAP tax rate estimate was 23%, which represents a blended rate before any tax restructuring efforts.

第二季淨利為 2.69 億美元，較去年成長 5%。本季稀釋後每股收益為 0.45 美元，年增 5%，以固定匯率計算成長 12%，其中包括 0.03 美元的貨幣逆風。請注意，這反映了 Avast 股票發行 9,400 萬美元的部分稀釋以及我們債務成本的上升。我們的非 GAAP 稅率估計為 23%，這是任何稅收重組工作之前的混合稅率。

Turning to our cash flow and balance sheet. Q2 operating cash flow was a use of cash of $88 million and CapEx was consistent at $2 million in the quarter. Seasonally, Q2 operating cash flow is the lowest quarter of the year due to the concentration of tax payments. This quarter also includes approximately $110 million of cash payments tied to the closing of the Avast deal and related financing transactions. Looking ahead, we have high confidence in our cash flow generation, which will continue to grow with profitability.

轉向我們的現金流和資產負債表。第二季營運現金流使用現金 8,800 萬美元，本季資本支出穩定在 200 萬美元。從季節性來看，由於納稅集中，第二季度營運現金流是全年最低的季度。本季還包括與 Avast 交易及相關融資交易的完成相關的約 1.1 億美元現金支付。展望未來，我們對現金流產生充滿信心，現金流將隨著獲利能力的持續成長。

Year-to-date, we have returned over $550 million back to shareholders in the form of both buybacks and dividends. We deployed a total of $404 million towards share repurchases or over 17 million shares in the first half of this fiscal year and have approximately $1.4 billion remaining in our current buyback program.

今年迄今為止，我們已以回購和股利的形式向股東返還超過 5.5 億美元。本財年上半年，我們總共投入了 4.04 億美元用於股票回購，即回購了超過 1,700 萬股股票，目前的回購計畫還剩約 14 億美元。

In Q2, we repurchased $104 million or 5 million shares. We also paid $73 million to shareholders in the form of our quarterly dividend of $0.125 per common share. For Q3, the Board of Directors approved a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per common share to be paid on December 14, 2022, for all shareholders of record as of the close of business on November 21, 2022.

第二季度，我們回購了 1.04 億美元或 500 萬股股票。我們還以每股普通股 0.125 美元的季度股息的形式向股東支付了 7,300 萬美元。對於第三季度，董事會批准於 2022 年 12 月 14 日向截至 2022 年 11 月 21 日收盤時在冊的所有股東支付每股普通股 0.125 美元的定期季度現金股息。

Moving to our capital structure. We had a lot of activity in Q2 related to the Avast acquisition and maturities that came due during the quarter. We now have a capital structure in place that we believe sets us up well for the long term. Our debt maturities have been extended and staggered through fiscal year 2031 with no near-term maturities due until April of 2025.

轉向我們的資本結構。我們在第二季進行了大量與 Avast 收購和本季到期相關的活動。我們現在擁有一個適當的資本結構，我們相信這對我們的長期發展有利。我們的債務到期日已延長並錯開至 2031 財年，直到 2025 年 4 月才到期。

We remain well positioned with $2.6 billion in liquidity, and our gross leverage is 4.4x with net leverage just under 4x. You can refer to Slide 31 in the earnings deck for more details on our go-forward capital structure.

我們仍然處於有利地位，擁有 26 億美元的流動性，我們的總槓桿率為 4.4 倍，淨槓桿率略低於 4 倍。您可以參閱收益表中的投影片 31，以了解有關我們未來資本結構的更多詳細資訊。

Looking ahead, Gen as a combined business has predictable and highly ratable revenue, generates significant free cash flow on an annual basis and is backed by a strong liquidity position. We will drive a balanced and disciplined capital allocation approach between targeted deleveraging and opportunistic share buybacks. We feel good about where we are at, and we will continue to evaluate and assess our overall debt needs and leverage profile in this ever-changing environment.

展望未來，Gen 作為一家合併後的企業，擁有可預測且高度可評價的收入，每年產生大量自由現金流，並得到強大流動性狀況的支持。我們將在有針對性的去槓桿化和機會性股票回購之間推動平衡和有紀律的資本配置方法。我們對目前的狀況感到滿意，我們將繼續在這個不斷變化的環境中評估和評估我們的整體債務需求和槓桿狀況。

Now an update on the Avast integration and expected synergies. We're pleased to report that our pre-integration planning and actions we've taken to date have successfully accelerated our integration time line from 24 months to 18 months. This is a big undertaking, and we are aggressively going after this. Our integration efforts are well underway with day 1 of integration officially kicked off a week ago on November 1, and I'm pleased to share with you today that we are increasing our annual gross cost synergy estimate to over $300 million.

現在介紹 Avast 整合和預期協同效應的最新情況。我們很高興地報告，我們的預先整合規劃和迄今為止的行動已成功地將我們的整合時間從 24 個月縮短到 18 個月。這是一項艱鉅的任務，我們正在積極追求這一目標。我們的整合工作正在順利進行，整合的第一天於一周前的 11 月 1 日正式啟動，我很高興今天與您分享，我們將年度總成本協同效應估計提高到超過 3 億美元。

In terms of phasing, we intend to exit fiscal year 2023 with 50% of the $300 million annual run rate achieved and exit the first half of our next fiscal year with 70% achieved. 100% completion exiting fiscal year 2024. We expect the post-synergy structure with gross margins of over 88% and OpEx reduced from approximately 35% of revenue today to 28% to 30%. This translates to an operating margin framework of approximately 60% and any leverage we drive above that creates flexibility to drive even more growth and portfolio diversification.

就分階段而言，我們打算在 2023 財年結束時實現 3 億美元年度運行率的 50%，並在下一財年上半年結束時實現 70%。 2024 財年完成 100%。這意味著大約 60% 的營業利潤率框架以及我們所推動的任何槓桿都可以創造靈活性，以推動更多成長和投資組合多元化。

With the addition of Avast, our complementary strengths provide increased levers to drive top line growth across the combined $500 million existing user base. We have identified approximately $200 million in revenue synergies over the next 2 years. Opportunities include Avast retention improvement, increased cross-sell and upsell, leveraging an expanded product portfolio and marketing spend optimization across brands, just to name a few. Achieving these synergies will help strengthen our mid-single-digit growth rate.

隨著 Avast 的加入，我們的互補優勢將提供更大的槓桿來推動總價值 5 億美元的現有用戶群的收入成長。我們已確定未來 2 年內將產生約 2 億美元的收入綜效。機會包括 Avast 保留率的提高、交叉銷售和追加銷售的增加、利用擴大的產品組合以及跨品牌的營銷支出優化等等。實現這些協同效應將有助於加強我們的中個位數成長率。

We expect traction with revenue synergies to be measured directly through ARPU and retention improvements over the coming quarters to support our bookings and top line growth expectations.

我們預期營收綜效的吸引力將透過未來幾季的 ARPU 和留任率的提高來直接衡量，以支持我們的預訂和營收成長預期。

Now turning to our Q3 outlook. For Q3, we expect non-GAAP revenue in the range of $925 million to $940 million, which reflects the first full quarter of contribution from Avast and reflects Cyber Safety mid-single-digit bookings growth. This also includes approximately $40 million of headwinds from FX. We expect Q3 non-GAAP EPS to be in the range of $0.42 to $0.45 per share. This reflects the first quarter dilutive impact from Avast. But please note, we expect Avast to be accretive in the first 12 months.

現在轉向我們的第三季展望。對於第三季度，我們預計非 GAAP 收入在 9.25 億美元至 9.4 億美元之間，這反映了 Avast 的第一個完整季度的貢獻，並反映了網路安全中個位數的預訂成長。這也包括來自外匯的約 4000 萬美元的阻力。我們預計第三季非 GAAP 每股盈餘將在 0.42 美元至 0.45 美元之間。這反映了 Avast 第一季的攤薄影響。但請注意，我們預計 Avast 將在前 12 個月內實現增值。

Based on the continued strengthening of the U.S. dollar quarter-to-date, we anticipate the currency headwinds to persist and the interest rate conditions to remain volatile. But I want to emphasize that the underlying health of the business remains strong and durable. And given our high cash flow generation and strong liquidity, we are confident in our ability to navigate through the near-term challenges. Q3 is just the first step post-Avast towards our long-term objectives.

鑑於美元本季迄今持續走強，我們預期貨幣逆風將持續存在，利率狀況將持續波動。但我想強調的是，該業務的基本健康狀況仍然強勁且持久。鑑於我們的高現金流量和強勁的流動性，我們對應對近期挑戰的能力充滿信心。第三季只是 Avast 後實現我們長期目標的第一步。

Beyond Q3, we continue to remain focused on our long-term $3 EPS objective that we communicated during our last Investor Day. Given the meaningful macroeconomic changes since then and now that we have merged with Avast, we have looked at a revised path to achieve this. First, we recognize that the rising cost of debt and FX headwinds has created a $0.60 to $0.65 headwind. Beyond that, the building blocks and past remain largely the same as we've laid out previously at Investor Day as well as 15 months ago during the Avast deal announcement.

第三季之後，我們繼續關注我們在上一次投資者日傳達的 3 美元每股盈餘的長期目標。鑑於自那時以來發生的有意義的宏觀經濟變化以及現在我們與 Avast 的合併，我們已經考慮了實現這一目標的修改路徑。首先，我們認識到債務成本上升和外匯逆風造成了 0.60 至 0.65 美元的逆風。除此之外，基本要素和過去的情況與我們先前在投資者日以及 15 個月前 Avast 交易公告期間所闡述的基本相同。

The annual gross cost synergies of over $300 million, combined with the accretion from Avast profits, will create more capacity for reinvestment in a faster time line, and will fund the diversification efforts and next Horizon Bet that helps solidify our growth targets.

超過3 億美元的年度總成本協同效應，加上Avast 利潤的增加，將在更快的時間內創造更多的再投資能力，並為多元化努力和下一個Horizo​​​​n Bet 提供資金，幫助鞏固我們的成長目標。

We expect our business to grow at mid-single digits, supported by the revenue synergies I laid out above, the complementary strengths and increased levers as a combined company and the long-term secular importance of Cyber Safety.

我們預計，在我上面列出的收入協同效應、合併後公司的互補優勢和槓桿增加以及網路安全的長期重要性的支持下，我們的業務將以中個位數成長。

These growth drivers are centered on product innovation and new product introductions, expanding reach and distribution through our omnichannel strategy and expansion of our trust-based services. The focus remains on customer experience at the core.

這些成長動力集中在產品創新和新產品推出、透過我們的全通路策略擴大覆蓋範圍和分銷以及擴大我們基於信任的服務。重點仍然是核心的客戶體驗。

Finally, we intend to use our capital to deliver incremental EPS with a disciplined approach of debt paydown and opportunistic share buyback ultimately offsetting the dilution from the Avast share issuance. This all ladders up to an annualized EPS of $3 as we exit fiscal year 2025 and in line with the time line we shared with you 18 months back.

最後，我們打算利用我們的資本透過嚴格的債務償還和機會主義股票回購方法來提供增量每股收益，最終抵消 Avast 股票發行帶來的稀釋。當我們結束 2025 財年時，這一切將導致年化 EPS 達到 3 美元，這與我們 18 個月前與您分享的時間線一致。

We are excited about these opportunities for growth and remain relentlessly focused on what we can control to achieve it. For more details, please refer to the whiteboard bridge in Slide 27 of the earnings presentation.

我們對這些成長機會感到興奮，並繼續不懈地關注我們可以控制的因素來實現這一目標。欲了解更多詳細信息，請參閱收益演示幻燈片 27 中的白板橋。

In summary, we remain committed to driving EPS expansion. We are focused on accelerated integration time line, on execution against our business opportunities and driving towards our long-term objectives. We have a very robust business model with a healthy customer base, and we remain focused on expanding new customer acquisition through new channels and geos, driving more value for our existing customers as well as increasing engagement with new products and services. We will provide updates and increments as we work through integration in these next few quarters.

總之，我們仍然致力於推動每股盈餘擴張。我們專注於加快整合時間、執行我們的商機並推動我們的長期目標。我們擁有非常穩健的業務模式和健康的客戶群，我們仍然專注於透過新管道和地理區域擴大新客戶獲取，為現有客戶帶來更多價值，並增加對新產品和服務的參與度。我們將在接下來的幾個季度進行整合時提供更新和增量。

As always, thank you for your time today, and I will now turn the call back to the operator to take your questions. Operator?

一如既往，感謝您今天抽出寶貴的時間，我現在將把電話轉給接線員，回答您的問題。操作員？

(Operator Instructions) The first question is from the line of Saket Kalia with Barclays.

（操作員說明）第一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 Saket Kalia。

Okay. Great. Congrats on closing Avast. Yes, Vincent, there's a lot to go through, particularly with Avast, but then maybe we can start just with the organic Gen business, if you will, right? It was great to see the churn improve versus last quarter. The net churn, the 62,000 net churn metric. I think most of us were prepared for something worse even versus last quarter, just given the trend in PC shipments. Maybe the question for you is, what do you think drove that improvement from last quarter's result despite that trend in PCs?

好的。偉大的。恭喜關閉 Avast。是的，Vincent，還有很多事情要做，特別是 Avast，但是如果您願意的話，也許我們可以從有機 Gen 業務開始，對吧？很高興看到客戶流失率較上季有所改善。淨流失率，62,000 的淨流失率指標。我認為，考慮到個人電腦出貨量的趨勢，我們大多數人都做好了應對甚至比上季更糟糕的情況的準備。也許您的問題是，儘管個人電腦出現了這種趨勢，您認為是什麼推動了上季業績的改善？

Yes. So I mean, as you guys know, we're not directly related to PCs. I think the PC is a good indicator of the pressure on the overall consumer spend and a lot of PC where bought and where onetime purchase during the COVID period, we obviously are more of a subscription business post device. People still spend time online, as you know. That is a growing metric. People still are exposed to risks in the digital world, and that's also a growing scary metric. So the need for our product is still there.

是的。所以我的意思是，正如你們所知，我們與個人電腦沒有直接關係。我認為個人電腦是整體消費者支出壓力的一個很好的指標，在新冠疫情期間購買的大量個人電腦和一次性購買的個人電腦，我們顯然更多的是訂閱業務的後期設備。如您所知，人們仍然花時間上網。這是一個不斷成長的指標。人們仍然面臨數位世界的風險，這也是一個越來越可怕的指標。所以對我們產品的需求仍然存在。

We said it for now 2 quarters that those macro level trends are impacting our global traffic and our ability to grow faster, our new customers coming from our direct marketing investments. But we continue to really foster their installed base, making sure we deliver the best value possible and it showed up into continued growing ARPU and high retention rates.

我們已經說過，目前兩個季度這些宏觀趨勢正在影響我們的全球流量和我們更快成長的能力，我們的新客戶來自我們的直接行銷投資。但我們繼續真正培育他們的安裝基礎，確保我們提供盡可能最大的價值，並體現在持續成長的 ARPU 和高保留率上。

Quarter in, quarter out, I don't think there is like something to conclude. We now have 39 direct million customers, 65 million total customers. And the trend would be -- although it's slightly negative, I would call them like flat plus or minus a percentage point. And I think you're going to continue to see that trend for probably a couple of quarters for as far as we can see. But we are really focusing on the opportunities we have within our current installed base and growing bookings through cross-pollination of all of the best practices both companies bring together.

四分之一進，四分之一出，我不認為有什麼可以總結的。我們現在有39個直接百萬客戶，總客戶數6500萬。趨勢是——雖然有點負面，但我會稱它們為持平加或減一個百分點。我認為，據我們所知，這種趨勢可能會持續幾個季度。但我們真正關注的是我們目前的安裝基礎中所擁有的機會，以及透過兩家公司匯集的所有最佳實踐的交叉授粉來增加預訂量。

Got it. Got it. That makes a lot of sense. Natalie, maybe for you. I mean, you said in the prepared remarks, just a really busy quarter for just the capital structure. I was wondering if you could just build on that and just talk about the delevering plan going forward. Obviously, a good amount of debt here to finance the acquisition. I think we said $0.40 to $0.45, just from the rising rate environment that eats into some of that EPS accretion. Maybe the question for you is, how do you think about your options here for delevering? Or maybe any other options to just generally control interest expense?

知道了。知道了。這很有意義。娜塔莉，也許適合你。我的意思是，您在準備好的發言中說過，對於資本結構來說，這是一個非常繁忙的季度。我想知道您是否可以在此基礎上談談未來的去槓桿化計劃。顯然，這裡有大量債務來為收購提供資金。我認為我們所說的 0.40 美元至 0.45 美元只是因為利率上升環境侵蝕了部分每股盈餘的成長。也許您的問題是，您如何看待去槓桿化的選擇？或者也許還有其他選擇來整體控制利息支出？

Yes. Saket, thanks for the question. So I would start with -- our capital allocation tenants are largely the same pre and post-Avast deal. I think the first and a very critical component of that is for us to get on to our annual free cash flow target of generating $1.5 billion. That's going to really bring to light the execution of the internal leadership team, really executing on all of these opportunities, both revenue and cost synergies and really generate that free cash flow.

是的。薩凱特，謝謝你的提問。因此，我首先要說的是，我們的資本配置租戶在 Avast 交易前後基本上相同。我認為第一個也是非常關鍵的組成部分是我們實現 15 億美元的年度自由現金流目標。這將真正揭示內部領導團隊的執行力，真正執行所有這些機會，包括收入和成本協同效應，並真正產生自由現金流。

Beyond that, as a reminder, what we've said is our key tenants are we want to get -- we're going to stay committed to our dividend, so take -- put that aside. And then we're going to find the right balance across our leverage ratio and our opportunistic share buyback. Of course, with the Avast financing and with the dramatic shift in the rates and the debt environment, we're about 1 point higher on our net debt leverage than we expected. And we're obviously facing into that.

除此之外，作為提醒，我們所說的是我們想要得到的關鍵租戶 - 我們將繼續致力於我們的股息，所以把它放在一邊。然後我們將在槓桿率和機會主義股票回購之間找到適當的平衡。當然，隨著 Avast 融資以及利率和債務環境的巨大變化，我們的淨債務槓桿比我們的預期高出約 1 個百分點。我們顯然正面臨這個問題。

It's not the only component of our capital allocation, and I don't think we can look at deleveraging in isolation. If you looked at it in isolation, I mean, obviously, the cost of debt is about 3x what we thought it was going to be even, I don't know, call it, 7 to 9 months ago. But when you also take a look at the dilution that came with the deal. We've talked about the Avast share issuance. So we're facing into that. We're also facing into what the -- when you look at our share price and really think about opportunistic share buybacks, the balance is incredibly key. And I think it's not only a balance of 1 lever or the next, there's also a timing component to that, too.

它不是我們資本配置的唯一組成部分，我認為我們不能孤立地看待去槓桿化。如果你孤立地看待它，我的意思是，顯然，債務成本大約是 7 到 9 個月前我們認為的平均成本的 3 倍。但當你也看看這筆交易帶來的稀釋效果。我們已經討論過 Avast 股票發行。所以我們正面臨這個問題。我們也面臨著——當你看看我們的股價並真正考慮機會主義的股票回購時，平衡是非常關鍵的。我認為這不僅僅是一個槓桿或下一個槓桿的平衡，還有一個計時組件。

And so by no means is it easy to strike that right balance, but we are super clear eyed about it, and we're trying to find and find how we actually balance across all these different factors, especially as the dynamics change so rapidly in the market.

因此，要達到這種正確的平衡絕非易事，但我們對此非常清楚，我們正在努力尋找並找到如何在所有這些不同因素之間實現真正的平衡，特別是當動態變化如此之快的時候市場。

Yes, absolutely. Well said. If I can sneak in a last one and then I'll cede the floor. Vincent, maybe for you. The $200 million in revenue synergies was great to see. I think you touched on it a little bit just in terms of retention rates, in particular. But I was wondering if you could just go one little deeper just in terms of, the building blocks of the $200 million in synergies, any thoughts on time frame in terms of when you get there and kind of how you get comfortable with that $200 million in revenue?

是的，絕對是。說得好。如果我能偷偷溜進最後一個，我就會讓出發言權。文森特，也許適合你。 2 億美元的營收綜效令人欣喜。我認為您特別是在保留率方面稍微談到了這一點。但我想知道您是否可以更深入地討論 2 億美元協同效應的組成部分、對何時實現這一目標的時間框架以及如何適應這 2 億美元的任何想法在收入方面？

Yes, absolutely. And so we have about 6 initiatives identified. It's important to note that they are not dependent on new product innovations. It's really about leveraging the strength of both organizations to offer more value to our customers, retention rates supported by our service organization coming into this deal will hugely benefit on the Avast side. You know that they have pressure on the retention rate, about 65%, and we've identified a set of operational initiatives here to move that up.

是的，絕對是。我們確定了大約 6 項措施。值得注意的是，它們並不依賴新產品創新。這實際上是為了利用兩個組織的優勢為我們的客戶提供更多價值，我們的服務組織參與這項交易所支援的保留率將使 Avast 方面受益匪淺。您知道，他們對保留率（約 65%）面臨壓力，我們在此確定了一系列營運措施來提高保留率。

Cross-selling identity and privacy more complete, comprehensive plan is an important one as well. Avast has a lot of focused technology and features and products. On the privacy side, we bring our identity protection expertise. And I think the cross-selling is the second one. The third one is really the move and upselling to the platform approach. I mentioned that about 60% of our customers had adopted before the acquisition, that platform view. We see higher satisfaction, higher usage. Avast has just launched Avast One. And I think now we're going to leverage that expertise to offer to the 15 million customers coming from Avast, the opportunity to benefit from it.

交叉銷售身分和隱私更完整、更全面的計畫也是重要的一項。 Avast 擁有許多專注的技術、功能和產品。在隱私方面，我們帶來了身分保護專業知識。我認為交叉銷售是第二個。第三種方法實際上是向平台方法的遷移和追加銷售。我提到，大約 60% 的客戶在收購之前就採用了該平台觀點。我們看到更高的滿意度和更高的使用率。 Avast 剛剛推出了 Avast One。我認為現在我們將利用這些專業知識為來自 Avast 的 1500 萬客戶提供從中受益的機會。

And then you have a set of go-to-market efficiency improvements. One is the e-commerce side and the operational capabilities we have developed. We know we can benefit from rebalancing a very significant performance marketing budget across all lines and leveraging our freemium to premium scope of business model will be the fifth initiative. And the sixth one is expanding in a few various channels that we did not have, one of them being the very small and small businesses.

然後，您將獲得一系列進入市場的效率改進。一是電商方面以及我們發展出來的營運能力。我們知道，我們可以從重新平衡所有產品線中非常重要的績效行銷預算中受益，並利用我們的免費增值到優質業務模式範圍將是第五項舉措。第六個是在我們沒有的一些不同管道中進行擴張，其中之一就是非常小型和小型企業。

So those are the 6 initiatives. We put them over 24 months. Make no mistakes. We are treating that as the priority day 1 immediately. We know we'll integrate, we know we'll deliver the cost synergies, obviously, driving value for our customers is our overall priority for us.

這就是 6 項舉措。我們將它們放置了 24 個月以上。不要犯任何錯誤。我們立即將其視為第一天的優先事項。我們知道我們會整合，我們知道我們會帶來成本協同效應，顯然，為客戶創造價值是我們的首要任務。

The next question is from the line of Matt Hedberg with RBC.

下一個問題來自加拿大皇家銀行 (RBC) 的 Matt Hedberg。

Congrats from me as well on the deal. Vincent, for you. The 66% Avast retention certainly seems like an opportunity from the cost synergy or from the revenue synergy perspective, you talked about. I'm wondering how much of that is just due to European exposure versus something maybe structurally with Avast? Just sort of wondering like how quickly we could see that Avast retention look more like sort of let NortonLifeLock?

我也對這筆交易表示祝賀。文森特，為了你。您談到，從成本綜效或收入綜效的角度來看，66% 的 Avast 保留率無疑是一個機會。我想知道其中有多少是由於歐洲的曝光而不是 Avast 的結構性原因？只是想知道我們多久才能看到 Avast 保留看起來更像讓 NortonLifeLock？

Totally, let me break it down and timing, we can talk about it because I think timing is linked to the bucket, but definitely at a very high level. If you separate, I would call it, there's a bucket of structural differences that you will never change. And I told you and all of you that the acquisition of Avira was a great warm up for us to understand how to manage freemium to premium business models, and it gave us the confidence to merge with Avast and create this new foundation. We know it is definitely an enabler of our future growth.

總而言之，讓我把它分解一下，我們可以討論一下時機，因為我認為時機與桶有關，但絕對是在一個非常高的水平上。如果你分開，我會稱之為，有一大堆結構性差異是你永遠不會改變的。我告訴你們和你們所有人，收購 Avira 為我們了解如何管理免費增值到優質業務模式提供了良好的預熱，它讓我們有信心與 Avast 合併並創建這個新的基礎。我們知道這絕對是我們未來成長的推動者。

On that retention side, I would say there's a set of structural view such as our European business or premium business model or other things. And about, I would say, 1/3 to half would be structural. Now some of the structural things we can tackle them, but back to timing, they will take longer.

在保留方面，我想說有一套結構觀點，例如我們的歐洲業務或優質業務模式或其他事物。我想說，大約 1/3 到一半是結構性的。現在我們可以解決一些結構性問題，但回到時間上，它們將需要更長的時間。

And then there is another set of operational differences. And that we know we've already brought to Avira and will bring to Avast in terms of improving retention, whether it's customer help service organizations, some of the feature insider product. I won't go too much into the details. But we know that we have at least 10 points here that are linked to our own operational execution. And that's what we, in the short term, are focused on.

還有另一組操作差異。我們知道，我們已經為 Avira 帶來了並將為 Avast 帶來提高保留率的功能，無論是客戶幫助服務組織還是一些內部產品功能。我不會過多討論細節。但我們知道，這裡至少有 10 個點與我們自己的營運執行有關。這就是我們短期內關注的重點。

We said over 2 years because we'll do a lot of, obviously, testing and deployment. We'll be cautious on timing of revenue synergies. They always take longer, but we'll accelerate the cost synergies to support the accretion on the bottom line. That's at the high level what the retention means.

我們說超過兩年是因為我們顯然會進行大量測試和部署。我們將謹慎對待收入綜效的時機。它們總是需要更長的時間，但我們將加速成本協同效應，以支持利潤的成長。這就是保留的高層次意義。

That's super, super great. That's super helpful. And then Natalie, it looks like apples-to-apples versus your revenue guide, it looks like kind of core NortonLifeLock was about $700 million, which is a little below the low end of the range. I'm wondering how much of that was due to currency headwinds that transpired since your last guidance? In other words, what was the incremental currency headwind since you reported your Q1 results to revenue?

真是超級超級棒啊這非常有幫助。然後 Natalie，看起來與您的收入指南相比，NortonLifeLock 的核心價值約為 7 億美元，略低於該範圍的低端。我想知道其中有多少是由於自您上次指導以來出現的貨幣逆風造成的？換句話說，自從您向收入報告第一季業績以來，增量貨幣逆風是多少？

Yes, it was about 4 points of growth. It's definitely a pretty significant headwind that we've been facing into the last few quarters with the volatility.

是的，成長了大約 4 個百分點。這絕對是我們在過去幾季中因波動而面臨的一個相當大的阻力。

If I can complement to that answer. I would say, Matt. Matt, one sec. I would say that the growth -- you broke it down pretty well, which is basically our core business is marching towards what we had said our guidance was and growing at mid-single digits. And we see these trends to continue. The difference, of course, are the macro level, currency being the #1 factor hitting us.

如果我可以補充這個答案。我想說，馬特。馬特，等一下。我想說的是，成長——你把它分解得很好，這基本上是我們的核心業務正在朝著我們所說的指導方向邁進，並以中個位數成長。我們看到這些趨勢將會持續下去。當然，差別在於宏觀層面，貨幣是影響我們的第一大因素。

Yes, great. And I think you said 4 points of headwind. I don't know if that's a year-on-year perspective, but do you know it was like a $5 million headwind incrementally, $10 million since last guidance? Just on kind of just -- I don't know if you have that figure or we can certainly circle back on a call back.

是的，太好了。我想你說的是 4 點逆風。我不知道這是否是同比的觀點，但你知道嗎，自上次指導以來，這就像 500 萬美元的逆風增量，1000 萬美元？只是——我不知道你是否有這個數字，或者我們當然可以回電。

No, we have it. So we're facing into about $30 million of currency headwind. From a quarter-over-quarter perspective, it was about $3 million to $4 million. Worse.

不，我們有。因此，我們面臨著約 3000 萬美元的貨幣逆風。從環比來看，約 300 萬至 400 萬美元。更糟的是。

The next question is from the line of Fiona Hynes with Morgan Stanley.

下一個問題來自摩根士丹利的 Fiona Hynes。

Congrats on closing Avast. And I'm covering for Hamza. So I appreciate all of the color on the updated reporting structure that you walked through in the prepared remarks. I wanted to follow up a little bit on the partner channel. It looks like the sequential growth there was a little bit lighter this quarter, even including the $5 million of contribution from Avast. So wanted to get any updated commentary on what drove that performance in the quarter? And then kind of your view of the ability of the partner channel to contribute on a go-forward basis. Where do you see that overall mix and contribution of revenue growing over the midterm?

恭喜關閉 Avast。我負責掩護哈姆札。因此，我很欣賞您在準備好的發言中所介紹的更新後的報告結構的所有內容。我想在合作夥伴頻道上進行一些跟進。即使包括 Avast 的 500 萬美元貢獻，本季的環比成長似乎有所放緩。那麼想獲得有關本季業績推動因素的最新評論嗎？然後談談您對合作夥伴通路未來貢獻能力的看法。您認為中期的整體組合和收入貢獻在哪裡成長？

And I'll take the first question. Natalie you can supplement. Definitely, in our partner business, I would continue to see that, as Natalie mentioned, an investment area. There's 4 or 5 key buckets from employee benefits to telco channels to now adding with Avast the SMB area. Now we had in our partner business in the past, as you know, also the mobile app direct customer, which will move into the direct business. So that may influence a little bit. Quarter in and quarter out, I think that -- I wouldn't call it deceleration, you'll see up and down in that business, all outgrowing the direct business based on our investment profile.

我將回答第一個問題。娜塔莉你可以補充。當然，在我們的合作夥伴業務中，正如娜塔莉所提到的那樣，我將繼續將其視為投資領域。從員工福利到電信管道，再到現在透過 Avast 添加的 SMB 領域，有 4 或 5 個關鍵領域。如您所知，我們過去在合作夥伴業務中也有行動應用直接客戶，他們將進入直接業務。所以這可能會影響一點。我認為，無論是季度還是季度，我不會稱之為減速，你會看到該業務的上下波動，根據我們的投資狀況，所有成長都超過了直接業務。

Yes, I just would supplement that, right? So from a partner perspective, it's about 10% of our business. So we're going to continue to invest. We've seen strong quarters, very consistent double-digit rate of growth. It continues to help. It's more important in the expansion into different markets and different channels and different customer cohorts. That's the value that we really get out of it. Of course, double-digit rate of growth in our -- in 10% of our revenue isn't bad. That's helpful as well. It's a diversification channel for us.

是的，我只是補充一下，對嗎？所以從合作夥伴的角度來看，這大約占我們業務的 10%。所以我們將繼續投資。我們看到了強勁的季度，非常穩定的兩位數成長率。它繼續提供幫助。更重要的是擴展到不同的市場、不同的通路和不同的客戶群。這就是我們真正從中獲得的價值。當然，我們收入的 10% 的兩位數成長率也不錯。這也很有幫助。這對我們來說是一個多元化的管道。

At this time, there are no more questions. I will turn the call back to Vincent Pilette, CEO, for closing remarks.

此時，已經沒有更多的疑問了。我將把電話轉回給執行長文森特‧皮萊特 (Vincent Pilette)，讓其致閉幕詞。

Thank you. So Gen's opportunity ahead is massive. Even with the near-term macro headwinds, we're still in early stages of long-term secular needs. And as we start this new chapter as Gen, let me recap how I feel.

謝謝。因此，Gen 未來的機會是巨大的。即使面臨近期宏觀阻力，我們仍處於長期長期需求的早期階段。當我們以Gen的身份開始新的篇章時，讓我回顧一下我的感受。

Our purpose is broad, meaningful and inspirational. The market is vast and full of opportunities. We are a house of trusted consumer brands. We have scale and a diversified go-to-market and we have great products, technology and technologists. And above all, we have a passionate and skilled team that thinks big and plays to win.

我們的目標是廣泛的、有意義的和鼓舞人心的。市場廣闊，充滿機會。我們是值得信賴的消費品牌之家。我們擁有規模和多元化的市場進入方式，並且擁有出色的產品、技術和技術人員。最重要的是，我們擁有一支充滿熱情、技術精湛的團隊，他們胸懷大志，為勝利而奮鬥。

So thank you for your support, and I look forward to talking to you soon.

感謝您的支持，我期待很快與您交談。

This concludes the conference call. Thank you.

電話會議到此結束。謝謝。