Gen Digital 10-K 2024-03-29

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

Form 10-K

(Mark One)

For the Fiscal Year Ended March 29, 2024

or

For the Transition Period from to

Commission File Number 000-17781

Gen Digital Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code:

(650) 527-8000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

(Title of class)

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Exchange Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☑

Aggregate market value of the voting stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant, based upon the closing sale price of Gen Digital common stock on September 29, 2023 as reported on the Nasdaq Global Select Market: $7,116,883,792, based on a per share stock price of $17.68. Solely for purposes of this disclosure, shares of common stock held by each executive officer, director, and holder of 5% or more of the outstanding common stock have been excluded as of such date because such persons may be deemed to be affiliates. This determination of possible affiliate status is not a conclusive determination for any other purposes.

The number of shares of Gen Digital common stock, $0.01 par value per share, outstanding as of May 10, 2024 was 626,145,897 shares.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive proxy statement for the 2024 annual meeting of stockholders are incorporated herein by reference into Part III of this Annual Report on Form 10-K where indicated. Such Proxy Statement will be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission within 120 days of the registrant’s fiscal year ended March 29, 2024.

GEN DIGITAL INC.

FORM 10-K

For the Fiscal Year Ended March 29, 2024

TABLE OF CONTENTS

“Gen,” “we,” “us,” “our,” and “the Company” refer to Gen Digital Inc. and all of its subsidiaries. Gen, Norton, Avast,

LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender, CCleaner and all related trademarks, service marks and trade names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Gen or other respective owners that have granted Gen the right to use such marks. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS AND FACTORS THAT MAY AFFECT FUTURE RESULTS

The discussion below contains forward-looking statements, which are subject to safe harbors under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the Securities Act) and the Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the Exchange Act). Forward-looking statements include statements that represent our expectations or beliefs concerning future events, including, without limitation, references to our ability to utilize our deferred tax assets, as well as statements including words such as “expects,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “estimates,” “predicts,” “goal,” “intent,” “momentum,” “projects,” “forecast,” “outlook,” “strategy,” “future,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” and similar expressions. In addition, projections of our future financial performance; anticipated growth and trends in our businesses and in our industries; the consummation of or anticipated impacts of acquisitions (including our ability to achieve synergies from acquisitions, including Avast), divestitures, restructurings, stock repurchases, financings, debt repayments and investment activities; the outcome or impact of pending litigation, claims or disputes; our intent to pay quarterly cash dividends in the future; plans for and anticipated benefits of our products and solutions; anticipated tax rates, benefits and expenses; the impact of inflation, fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates, changes in interest rates, ongoing and new geopolitical conflicts, and other global macroeconomic factors on our operations and financial performance; and other characterizations of future events or circumstances are forward-looking statements. These statements are only predictions, based on our current expectations about future events and may not prove to be accurate. We do not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect events occurring or circumstances arising after the date of this report. These forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, and our actual results, performance, or achievements could differ materially from those expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements on the basis of several factors, including economic recessions, inflationary pressures and those other factors that we discuss in Item 1A. Risk Factors, of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. We encourage you to read those sections carefully. There may also be other factors that have not been anticipated or that are not described in our periodic filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), generally because we did not believe them to be significant at the time, which could cause actual results to differ materially from our projections and expectations. All forward-looking statements should be evaluated with the understanding of their inherent uncertainty.

PART I

Purpose and Mission

Purpose: Powering Digital Freedom.

Mission: We create technology solutions for people to take full advantage of the digital world, safely, privately, and confidently so together, we can build a better tomorrow.

Our Values

Protecting people is what inspires us, and our people are at the core of what we do. We seek to attract talent that embraces the following values:

• Customer Driven. Community Minded.** We are advocates for our customers and are dedicated to making their lives simpler and safer. We are driven by the positive impact we can have on all the communities in which we live and work.

• Think Big. Be Bold.** We empower and inspire one another to think in new ways and to embrace change. We take calculated risks and learn fast to drive innovation across the business.

• Keep it real. Make it Happen.** We are authentic, open, and treat one another with respect. We do what we say and say what we do with integrity.

• Play to win. Together.** We act with passion, purpose, and energy to win with customers and in the marketplace. We leverage the strength of our global team, knowing we’re more powerful together.

Company Overview

Gen is a global company powering Digital Freedom with a family of trusted brands including Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner. We bring award-winning products and services in cyber safety, covering security, privacy and identity protection to approximately 500 million users in more than 150 countries so they can live their digital lives safely, privately, and confidently today and for generations to come.

Today’s world is increasingly digital, and this has changed the way we live our lives every day. The last decade has brought increasingly impressive technological advances that have unlocked new ways to play and transact online, control smart homes, and more. The possibilities in the digital world will continue to transform our lives. However, with each new digital interaction comes increased risk and exposure for consumers as cybercriminals use a mix of old and new tactics and technologies, including phishing, vishing, smishing, based on machine learning and generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, to execute highly advanced threats and attacks. We are our customers’ trusted ally they can depend on to help secure and control their digital lives so they can be free to enjoy the promise of the digital world. We are committed more than ever to protecting and empowering people’s digital lives with personalized, human-centered safety.

We are well positioned for driving the awareness of cyber safety for individuals, families, and small businesses, fueled by an increasingly connected world. We maintain a global, omni-channel sales approach, including direct, indirect and freemium acquisition and a family of brands marketing program. This program is designed to grow our customer base by increasing brand awareness and understanding of our products and services and maximizing our global reach to prospective customers.

We help prevent, detect and restore potential damages caused by many cybercriminals. We also make it easy for consumers to find, buy and use our products and services. To this end, we offer both free and paid subscription-based cyber safety solutions primarily direct-to-consumer through our family of brands and indirectly through partner relationships. Most of our subscriptions are offered on annual terms, but we also provide monthly subscriptions.

As of March 29, 2024, we have approximately 500 million total users, which come from direct, indirect and freemium channels. Of these total users, we have approximately 65 million paid cyber safety customers including over 39 million direct customers with whom we have a direct billing relationship.

• Direct-to-consumer channel:** We use advertising to elevate our family of brands, attract new customers and generate significant demand for our services. Our direct subscriptions are primarily sold through our e-commerce platform and mobile apps, and we have a direct billing relationship with the majority of these customers.

• Indirect partner distribution channels:** We use strategic and affiliate partner distribution channels to refer prospective customers to us and expand our reach to our partners’ and affiliates’ customer bases. We developed and implemented a global partner sales organization that targets new, as well as existing, partners to enhance our partner distribution channels. These channels include retailers, telecom service providers, hardware OEMs, employee benefit providers, strategic partners, and small offices, home offices and very small businesses. Physical retail and OEM partners represent a small portion of our distribution, which minimizes the impact of supply chain disruptions.

• Freemium channels:** With the acquisitions of Avast and Avira, we have expanded our go-to-market with multiple freemium channels. We use free versions of our products to reach the broadest set of consumers globally and bring cyber safety to a larger audience, especially in international markets. The free solution offers a baseline of protection and presents premium functionalities based on the risk profile and specific needs of the user. The user can choose to add specific premium solutions or upgrade to suites that provide security, identity, and privacy across multiple platforms and devices, thereby becoming a paid customer.

Seasonality

As is typical for many consumer technology companies, portions of our business are impacted by seasonality. However, we believe the net impact on our business is limited. Seasonal behavior in orders primarily reflects consumer spending patterns where our fiscal third and fourth quarters are generally higher due to the holidays in our third quarter, as well as follow-on holiday purchases and the U.S. tax filing season which typically is in our fourth quarter. Revenue generally reflects similar seasonal patterns but to a lesser extent than orders because of our subscription business model, as the majority of our in-period revenues are recognized ratably from our deferred revenue balance.

Our Strategy

Our strategy is focused on long-term profitable growth. To fuel our growth, our consumer-centric strategy is to provide comprehensive and easy-to-use integrated platforms, which we have built in-house or acquired. By combining and leveraging our family of trusted consumer brands, including offerings from Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner, we deliver an industry-leading set of cyber safety solutions.

We are positioned for long-term growth and expansion. Our three primary growth levers are:

1.Extending Reach: Leveraging an omni-channel strategy and building partnerships to broaden privacy and identity protection internationally.

2.Increasing Value: Cross-selling and up-selling, and expanding security, identity and privacy solutions to address consumers’ evolving needs.

3.Growing Loyalty: Increase customer loyalty and retention, as consumers move from point products protecting their devices towards all-in-one comprehensive cyber safety memberships.

The key elements of our strategy include the following:

• Extend our leadership position through new products and continued enhancement of our solutions and services:** Cyber safety is a large and expanding market, which we believe provides a significant growth opportunity. Our strategy is to grow our business through innovation and acquisitions to expand the solutions and services we offer into new cohorts, territories and sectors. We believe there are many additional areas where we can both offer new solutions, as well as use our core capabilities and our integrated platform to reach new customers and markets globally.

• Grow our customer base through multiple channels:** We have multiple go-to-market channels to reach new customers globally, including direct-to-customer, indirect partnerships and freemium. We intend to leverage our expertise in digital marketing, as well as existing and new strategic partnerships, to grow our customer base. We believe that continued investments in these areas, as well as our product offerings and infrastructure, will allow us to further enhance our leading brands and superior products, increase awareness of our consumer services and enhance our ability to efficiently acquire new customers.

• Continue our focus on customer retention:** We continue to optimize and expand the value we provide to customers which we believe can positively impact retention. We aim to continue to increase customer engagements through actionable alerts, education on timely topics and introducing new product capabilities. We also plan to continue investing in enhancing both desktop and mobile customer experiences throughout a customer’s journey with Gen, from purchase, to onboarding and beyond.

• Increase value to existing customers:** We believe strong customer satisfaction will provide us with the opportunity to engage customers in new services offerings. We maintain the Norton 360 and Avast One platforms that have multiple tiers of membership, and we continue to engage customers with standalone products to offer membership options and show the value proposition of our premium solutions. Over time, we plan to drive further growth as we add additional offerings and services for our customers.

• Draw strength from our world-class customer service support:** Our global support team seeks to ensure the voice of the consumer is heard and that we put our customers first. We leverage frequent communication and feedback from our customers to continually improve our solutions and services. We embrace end-to-end customer experience and aim to continue to improve our Net Promoter Scores and overall customer satisfaction.

• Leverage our global brands to drive growth:** We will work to keep building our family of trusted brands in markets globally as we strive to bring protection and empowerment to all consumers when it comes to their digital lives. According to our most recent research, Norton has 85% global brand awareness, and we are best positioned and top of mind in consumer cyber safety, according to the 2023 Gen Brand Tracker.

Our Cyber Safety Solutions and Services

Our broad portfolio of products and services is developed from consumer insights to help us bring to market real solutions to real problems and to engage and educate consumers about cyber safety. We continuously aim to release new products and features to outpace evolving threats and find synergies to integrate current and future technology acquisitions.

Our cyber safety portfolio provides protection across three key categories in multiple channels and geographies, including security and performance, identity protection, and online privacy. Leveraging our technology platforms, we integrate software and service capabilities within these three categories into comprehensive and easy-to-use products and solutions across our brands.

We have also evolved beyond traditional cyber safety to offer adjacent trust-based solutions, including digital identity and access management, digital reputation, and restoration support services.

We protect and empower consumers by providing solutions and services in two main ways:

• Comprehensive membership plans:** Providing a comprehensive and all-in-one cyber safety portfolio of solutions for a membership fee. Plans are offered through Norton 360 and Avast One subscriptions, with both brands providing multiple levels of membership tiers that range from basic, mid-level, or premium tiers where identity theft and online privacy features are included.

• Point solutions:** Providing individual, stand-alone products and services in security, identity and privacy, offering flexibility for consumers to choose between free or paid solutions. These products solve for a specific need, when you need it, and can add on to the value you already have. Please see below for our full set of products by category.

We are well positioned across three key cyber safety categories:

• Security and Performance (Norton, Avast, Avira, AVG, and CCleaner offerings):** Our offerings provide real-time threat protection for PCs, Macs and mobile devices against malware, viruses, adware, ransomware and other online emerging threats. These offerings monitor and block unauthorized traffic from the internet to the device to help protect private and sensitive information when customers are online. Additionally, our all-in-one cybersecurity solutions help small business owners safeguard their team’s online activities, devices and customer data. Scams have also continued to become more prevalent and sophisticated and we offer real-time scam detection tools such as Norton Genie to help determine if a text, email, social media post or website could be a scam. We also provide performance and optimization software solutions that frees up space on devices, clears online tracking and helps machines run faster.

• Identity Protection (US: LifeLock Identity Theft Protection, Avast and AVG Secure Identity; International: Norton Identity Theft Protection, Dark Web Monitoring):** In the US, we offer Identity Theft protection as part of our LifeLock, Avast and AVG brands. All three products include monitoring of credit reports, the dark web and social media accounts to help safeguard our customers’ personal information. The LifeLock product also offers monitoring of financial accounts. In the event of identity theft, we assign an Identity Restoration Specialist to work directly with customers to help restore their identities, and all plans include reimbursements for losses and expenses incurred ranging up to $3 million. Outside the US, we offer Norton branded plans that include dark web monitoring in over 50 countries and monitoring of credit, social media and financial accounts, restoration support and identity theft insurance in select countries.

• Online Privacy (VPN, multiple personal data protection products, ReputationDefender):** Our VPN solutions offered through the Norton, Avast and AVG brands enhance security and online privacy by providing an encrypted data tunnel. This allows customers to securely transmit and access private information, such as passwords, bank details and credit card numbers, when using public Wi-Fi on PCs, Macs, and mobile iOS and Android devices. We offer a variety of solutions under the Norton and Avast brands to protect customers’ data either by keeping it anonymous while browsing online through our AntiTrack and Secure Browser products or helping customers remove it from public data broker sites through our Privacy Monitor Assistant and BreachGuard products. ReputationDefender is a white glove service that helps customers manage all aspects of their personal branding online, including search results, social media sites and overall web presence.

Innovation, Research and Development

Gen has a long history of innovation, and we plan to continue to invest in research and development to drive our long-term success.

As cyber threats evolve, we are focused on delivering a portfolio that protects each element of our customers’ digital lives. To do this, we engage and listen to our customers, and we embrace innovation by deploying a global research and development strategy across our cyber safety platform. Our engineering and product management teams are focused on delivering new versions of existing offerings, as well as developing entirely new offerings to drive the company’s global leadership in cyber safety.

We are committed to our innovation and research and development efforts. The Technology team at Gen is driving the company’s future technologies and innovation and helping guide the consumer cybersecurity industry. Our global technology research organization is focused on applied research projects, with the goal of rapidly creating new products to address consumer trends and grow the business, including defending consumer digital privacy and identity. We also have a global threat response and security technology organization that is comprised of our dedicated team of threat and security researchers, supported by advanced systems to innovate security technology and threat intelligence.

We have one of the world’s largest consumer cyber safety networks. Leveraging our capabilities, our global threat response team handles a wide variety of attacks, including social engineering attacks, file-based attacks, web and network-based attacks, privacy and data exfiltration attacks, identity theft attacks, algorithmic manipulation attacks, and more.

Our differentiated approach is powered by our global scale and visibility, geographically distributed cloud data platform, and advanced AI-based automation.

Industry Overview

Cyber safety is a growing market, fueled by the increase in activities online over the years as well as the years ahead. The core markets that we participate in are security, identity and privacy. We believe the cyber safety market will continue to expand beyond these core markets and grow significantly, driven by the increasing number of people globally connected to the internet and their expanding digital lives.

The cyber threat landscape is larger and more complicated than ever before, exposing consumers to an increased risk to their digital lives. The digitization of the world and the overlap between the physical and digital world are growing at a fast pace. New technologies, smart devices, digital identities and an increasingly more connected world mean consumers will encounter a range of new cyber safety challenges. Consumer demands and behaviors are rapidly changing and driving more activities online, from shopping, socializing, working, banking, to other activities in healthcare, entertainment and so much more. Almost every aspect of a person’s life has a digital component. Unfortunately, many of those activities are left unprotected, and attackers are exploiting this larger opportunity and the inherent security and privacy vulnerabilities. Cybercriminals have not only expanded their reach, but the sophistication of digital threats and attacks are becoming increasingly more realistic and believable. The advancement of AI and large language model (LLM) technology is a key driver of this.

Cybercrime, and the ways in which cybercriminals target consumers, continue to evolve along with behaviors and technology. Cybercrime encompasses any crime committed with devices over the internet and includes crimes where (i) malicious software or unauthorized access is detected on a device, network or online account (such as email, social media, online banking, crypto currency, online retail, gaming, online entertainment, etc.), and unauthorized access or connection to cloud service accounts; (ii) an individual is digitally victimized through a data breach, cyber theft, cyber extortion, or fraud (stolen personally identifiable information, identity theft, etc.); (iii) online stalking, bullying, or harassment is inflicted; or (iv) attacks related to privacy or disinformation (such as online tracking protection, identity impersonation, disinformation on social media, deepfakes, unsecured WiFi, EvilTwin attacks, etc.).

Competitive Landscape

We operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment. We face global competition from a broad range of companies, including software vendors focusing on cyber safety solutions, operating system providers such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, and ‘pure play’ companies that currently specialize in one or a few particular segments of the market and many of which are expanding their product portfolios into different segments. We believe the competitive factors in our market include innovation, access to a breadth of identity and consumer transaction data, broad and effective service offerings, brand recognition, technology, effective and cost-efficient customer acquisition, having a strong retention rate, customer satisfaction, price, convenience of purchase, ease of use, frequency of upgrades and updates and quality and reliable customer service. Our competitors may vary by offering, geography, business model and channel.

Our principal competitors are set forth below:

• Security: Our principal competitors in this segment include Apple, Bitdefender, ESET, F-Secure, Google, Kaspersky, Malwarebytes, McAfee, Microsoft, Trend Micro, and Webroot.

• Identity Protection: Our principal competitors in this segment include credit bureaus such as Equifax, Experian and TransUnion, as well as certain credit monitoring and identity theft protection solutions from others such as Allstate, Aura, Generali (Iris), Intuit (Credit Karma) and Microsoft.

• Online Privacy: Our principal competitors in this segment include Apple, Aura, Brave, DuckDuckGo, IPVanish, Kape, Mozilla and Nord Security.

• Other Competitors: In addition to competition from independent software vendors such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trend Micro, and from OS providers such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, we also face competition from other companies that currently focus on one or a few cyber safety or adjacent segments but are developing additional competing products and expanding their portfolios into new segments, such as ‘pure play’ companies including but not limited to, 1Password, Bark, Dashlane, LastPass, Life360, Proton, and Truecaller, internet service providers, big tech platform providers, insurance companies and financial service organizations.

We believe we compete favorably with our competitors on the strength of our technology, people, product offerings and presence in all of the current key cyber safety categories. However, some of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, distribution or other resources than we do, including in new cyber safety and digital life segments we may enter, which consequently affords them competitive advantages. As a result, they may be able to devote greater resources to develop, promote and sell their offerings; deliver competitive offerings at lower prices or for free; and introduce new solutions and respond to market developments and customer requirements and preferences more quickly or cost effectively than we can. In addition, for individual solutions or features, smaller, well-funded competitors may be able to innovate and adapt more nimbly to the dynamic nature of the market and shifting consumer needs.

For more information on the risks associated with our competitors, please see “Risk Factors” – Risks Related to Our Business Strategy and Industry – “We operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment, and if we are unable to compete effectively, we could experience a loss in market share and a reduction in revenue” and “We may need to change our pricing models to compete successfully,” in Item 1A included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG)

Our commitment to ESG supports our company Purpose and Mission. The Nominating and Governance Committee of our Board of Directors has oversight over the Company’s ESG strategy, and our full Board of Directors receives a quarterly ESG update. This quarterly update includes program information across ethics, community investment, the environment and information on emerging ESG priorities. Additionally, as part of our ESG reporting process, we hold regular meetings with functional leaders to review our ESG disclosures. Our Leadership Team is highly engaged in our ESG efforts. Our Head of Corporate Responsibility and Public Policy provides quarterly updates to our Leadership Team and cross-functional ESG Working Group to review our strategy, progress, and program updates.

Building a brand centered on trust is critically important to our business success, and our focus on ESG helps us earn trust from our customers, employees, investors and shareholders. As such, ESG topics are core to our business strategy. Examples of our efforts include:

• Environment:** Helping protect our planet is part of promoting a safe and sustainable future. We work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our operations through operational efficiencies, reduce the environmental footprint of our products across their lifecycle through innovative approaches to product development and packaging, promote high standards in our supply chain and engage with employees and environmental partners to amplify our work.

• Social:** We are proud to support the communities where our team members live and work. Our community impact programs include employee volunteering and giving, product donations, signature programs that leverage our unique expertise in increasing digital safety literacy, and corporate philanthropic giving. Our giving focuses on digital safety education; environmental action; and disaster response. We also support diversity, equity, and inclusion and employee engagement, discussed in more detail in the Human Capital Management subsection.

• Governance:** Governance covers many core operating principles overseen by the Nominating and Governance Committee of our Board of Directors. This committee has oversight of ESG program and receives quarterly updates on topics such as diversity, ethics, community investment and the environment. Our global culture of responsibility, and the positive contributions we make to the customers, employees, communities, and other stakeholders that we serve drives value for our business.

Setting strategic, achievable, and business-aligned corporate responsibility objectives helps to guide our work and improves our company performance. We align our ESG programs with the company’s financial goals and focus on the unique positive social and environmental impacts that our business model can have on the world. These include:

• Data Privacy and Protection:** We safeguard our customer, partner and employee data and offer products that help consumers protect their personal data wherever it is found.

• Education and Training for cyber safety:** We leverage our leading expertise and technology to help educate, train and protect children, families and vulnerable communities online.

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Technology:** We invest in high-impact non-profits to bring more women and under-represented groups into cybersecurity and technology.

• Environment:** We focus our environmental strategy on climate and energy, sustainable products, our supply chain, and engagement with employees and nonprofit partners with an emphasis on transparency about our progress and commitments.

• Employee Engagement:** We provide employees globally with meaningful ways to put their time, skills and monetary donations to work for their favorite causes. Gen provides robust benefits for volunteering and giving for all employees including matching donations dollar for dollar to approved nonprofits. During special campaigns, Gen provides an opportunity to double their donations to their favorite causes.

We cannot guarantee that we will achieve these objectives, and our ability to achieve them is subject to risks and uncertainties both known and unknown, including various risks noted in Item 1A. Risk Factors and elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Our annual ESG and Corporate Responsibility Report can be found at Investor.GenDigital.com/ESG.

Human Capital Management

At Gen, our mission is to build a comprehensive and easy-to-use integrated portfolio that prevents, detects and responds to cyber threats and cybercrimes in today’s digital world. Our success in helping achieve this mission depends, in large part, on the success of our employees.

• General Employee Demographics: As of March 29, 2024, we employed just under 3,400 team members in nearly 30 countries worldwide. With dual headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, and in Prague, Czech Republic, we have over 1,000 active employees located in the U.S. and nearly 900 active employees in the Czech Republic. None of our U.S. employees are represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

As of March 29, 2024, inclusive of our integration of bringing together NortonLifeLock and Avast teams as a combined company, women represented 34% of Gen’s total workforce and held positions in 34% of our leadership. In addition, as of March 29, 2024, women represented 40% of our Board of Directors and half of our independent board membership.

• Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI): We strive to be a diverse, vibrant community with strong values and a shared commitment to our customers, to each other, the work we do and the world we all share. Our mission is to increase our global representation of underrepresented groups at all levels (diversity), where everyone has an opportunity for

development and advancement (equity) and can bring their whole selves to work and feel valued every day (inclusion). As part of our culture and leadership fabric, we are committed to increasing diversity through our four pillar DEI strategy. This mission is built upon four foundational pillars: (1) measurement and accountability; (2) fostering an inclusive environment; (3) diversifying our workforce; and (4) employee development and retention, which are designed to support, attract, retain and nurture our talent.

Clear and actionable multi-year representation goals are set at the leadership level to support accountability and progress, against our goals. Diversity and inclusion are woven into our people processes and our culture. We ask new hires and employees to self-identify their demographics and other important characteristics to help us better measure the diversity of our applicant pool and of our team to derive insights and actionable people strategies. We post positions on several diverse recruiting sites and have dedicated budget to support increasing diverse candidate pipelines.

Inclusion is something we strive for and we measure belonging as a key metric in our Engage employee surveys and are proud to support our nine employee resource groups, our Gen communities for people to come together as allies, to learn, support, mentor, and celebrate with one another and to provide an environment where everyone feels seen, heard, respected and valued.

• Employee Development and Training: Our people programs are designed to provide our team members with support, resources, and opportunities they need to grow, learn and thrive in their careers. We continued to focus on learning and development in fiscal 2024, investing further in digital learning via our Rise Learning programs for all employees. Leveraging an extensive breadth of content and learning opportunities, this umbrella of offerings includes Rise Mentorship, Rise eLearning and University of Rise (U Rise).

Rise eLearning, a collection of over 5,000 digital, on-demand modules categorized around leadership, health and wellness, business skills, and technical skills, experienced a steady increase in participation during the year with over 2,000 individual learners. We also provide group learning designed around TED Talks on topics including leadership, change management and to support our diversity, equity and inclusion efforts.

Our Rise Mentorship program continues to grow and boasts an active community of mentors and mentees across the world. Our U Rise leadership program that offers best-in-class content from Harvard ManageMentor to inspire and engage existing and aspiring people leaders provides over 40 course options and group learning opportunities. Over 200 participants have enrolled in this program to date.

As part of our ongoing focus on diverse employee development, we continue to extend our participation in McKinsey & Company’s Connected Leaders Academy for our Asian, Black and Hispanic-Latino leaders. Additionally, we had women globally attend the Women in Tech conference and several employees attended the Out & Equal Global Workplace Summit.

• Employee Engagement: We value our people and are committed to creating a positive and fulfilling experience for everyone. Feedback from our employees is critical, and we have developed an ongoing dialogue with our teams via our Engage pulse survey on a targeted topic that drives actions and improvements.

• Benefits; Health and Wellness:** At Gen, we value our people and are committed to creating a positive and fulfilling experience for everyone through the programs and benefits we offer. Our employee value proposition, Life@Gen is centered on choice, flexibility and growth and encompasses the many elements of our employee experience. Our commitment to overall health and wellness are centered around having an integrated and equitable wellness program that supports body, mind and financial health.

• Human Capital Governance:** We partner closely with our Board of Directors and the Compensation and Leadership Development Committee on executive compensation, our broader reward strategies and objectives related to talent management, talent acquisition, leadership development, retention and succession, DEI and employee engagement.

Intellectual Property

Our intellectual property is an important and vital asset that enables us to develop, market, and sell our software products and services and enhance our competitive position. We are a leader among consumer cyber safety solutions in pursuing patents and currently have a portfolio of over 1,000 U.S. and international patents issued with many pending. We protect our intellectual property rights and investments in a variety of ways to safeguard our technologies and our long-term success. Our IP portfolio is spread across different entities and in multiple countries. As we continue to expand our international operations, we have developed a strategy to ensure global distribution of our IP aligns with our long-term strategic objectives, business model, and goals. We work actively in the U.S. and internationally to ensure the enforcement of copyright, trademark, trade secret and other protections that apply to our software products and services. The term of the patents we hold is, on average, in excess of ten years.

From time to time, we enter into cross-license agreements with other technology companies covering broad groups of patents; we have an additional portfolio of over 2,000 U.S. and international patents cross-licensed to us as part of our arrangement with Broadcom as a result of the asset sale of our former Enterprise Security business. We also use software from third parties in our business and generally must rely on those third parties to protect the licensed rights. This can include open source software, which is subject to limited proprietary rights. While it may be necessary in the future to seek or renew licenses relating to various aspects of our products, services, and business methods, we believe, based upon past experience and industry practice, such licenses generally can be obtained on commercially reasonable terms. The ability to maintain and protect

our intellectual property rights is important to our success, but we believe our business is not materially dependent on any individual patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, license, or other intellectual property right.

However, circumstances outside our control could pose a threat to our intellectual property rights. Effective intellectual property protection may not be available, and the efforts we have taken to protect our proprietary rights may not be sufficient or effective. Any significant impairment of our intellectual property rights could harm our business or our ability to compete. In addition, protecting our intellectual property rights is costly and time consuming. Any unauthorized disclosure or use of our intellectual property could make it more expensive to do business and harm our operating results.

In addition, a large number of patents, copyrights and trademarks are owned by other companies in the technology industry. Those companies may request license agreements, threaten litigation, or file suit against us based on allegations of infringement or other violations of intellectual property rights.

For more information on the risks associated with our intellectual property, please see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Governmental Regulation

We collect, use, store or disclose an increasingly high volume, and variety of personal information, including from employees and customers, in connection with the operation of our business, particularly, in relation to our identity and information protection offerings, which rely on large data repositories of personal information and consumer transactions. The personal information we process is subject to an increasing number of federal, state, local and foreign laws regarding privacy and data security.

For information on the risks associated with complying with privacy and data security laws, please see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Available Information

Our internet home page is located at GenDigital.com. We make available our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after we electronically file such material with the SEC on our investor relations website located at Investor.GenDigital.com. We also use our website as a tool to disclose important information about the company and comply with our disclosure obligations under Regulation Fair Disclosure. The information contained, or referred to, on our website, including in any reports that are posted on our website, is not part of this annual report unless expressly noted. The SEC maintains a website that contains reports, proxy and information statements, and other information regarding our filings at http://www.sec.gov.

RISKS RELATED TO OUR BUSINESS STRATEGY AND INDUSTRY

If we are unable to develop new and enhanced solutions, or if we are unable to continually improve the performance, features, and reliability of our existing solutions, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

Our future success depends on our ability to effectively respond to evolving threats to consumers, as well as competitive technological developments and industry changes, by developing or introducing new and enhanced solutions on a timely basis. In the past, we have incurred, and will continue to incur, significant research and development expenses as we focus on organic growth through internal innovation. We believe that we must continue to dedicate significant resources to our research and development efforts to deliver innovative market competitive products and avoid being reliant on third-party technology and products. If we do not achieve the benefits anticipated from these investments, or if the achievement of these benefits is delayed, our operating results may be adversely affected. We must continually address the challenges of dynamic and accelerating market trends and competitive developments. Customers may require features and capabilities that our current solutions do not have. Our failure to develop new solutions and improve our existing solutions to satisfy customer preferences and effectively compete with other market offerings in a timely and cost-effective manner may harm our ability to retain our customers and attract new customers.

The development and introduction of new solutions involve significant commitments of time and resources and are subject to risks and challenges including but not limited to:

• Lengthy development cycles;

• Evolving industry and regulatory standards and technological developments, including AI and machine learning, by our competitors and customers;

• Rapidly changing customer preferences and accurately anticipating technological trends or needs;

• Evolving platforms, operating systems, and hardware products, such as mobile devices;

• Product and service interoperability challenges with customer’s technology and third-party vendors;

• The integration of products and solutions from acquired companies;

• Availability of engineering and technical talent;

• Entering new or unproven market segments; and

• Executing new product and service strategies.

In addition, third parties, including operating systems and internet browser companies, have in the past and may in the future limit the interoperability of our solutions with their own products and services, in some cases to promote their own offerings or those of our competitors. Any such actions by third parties could delay the development of our solutions or our solutions may be unable to operate effectively. This could also result in decreased demand for our solutions, decreased revenue, harm to our reputation, and adversely affect our business, financial condition, results of operations, and cash flows.

If we are not successful in managing these risks and challenges, or if our new or improved solutions are not technologically competitive or do not achieve market acceptance, our business and operating results could be adversely affected.

We operate in a highly competitive and dynamic environment, and if we are unable to compete effectively, we could experience a loss in market share and a reduction in revenue.

We operate in intensely competitive and dynamic markets that experience frequent and rapid technological developments, changes in industry and regulatory standards, evolving market trends, changes in customer requirements and preferences, and frequent new product introductions and improvements. If we are unable to anticipate or react to these continually evolving conditions, we could experience a loss of market share and a reduction in our revenues, which could materially and adversely affect our business and financial results. To compete successfully, we must maintain an innovative research and development effort to develop new solutions and enhance our existing solutions, and effectively adapt to changes in the technology, privacy and data protection standards or trends.

We face competition from a broad range of companies, including software vendors focusing on cyber safety solutions such as Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee and Trend Micro, operating system providers such as Apple, Google and Microsoft, and companies such as Nord, Life360, LastPass and others that currently specialize in one or a few particular segments of the market and many of which are expanding their product portfolios into different segments. Many of these competitors offer solutions or are currently developing solutions that directly compete with some or all of our offerings. We also face growing competition from other technology companies, as well as from companies in the identity threat protection space such as credit bureaus. Further, many of our competitors are increasingly developing and incorporating into their products data protection software and other competing cyber safety products such as antivirus protection or VPN, often free of charge, that compete with our offerings. Our competitive position could be adversely affected by the functionality incorporated into these products rendering our existing solutions obsolete and therefore causing us to fail to meet customer expectations. In addition, the introduction of new products or services by competitors, and/or market acceptance of products or services based on emerging or alternative technologies, could make it easier for other products or services to compete with our solutions.

We have seen and anticipate additional competition as new participants enter the cyber safety market and as our current competitors seek to increase their market share and expand their existing offerings. Some of our competitors have greater financial, technical, marketing, or other resources than we do, including in new cyber safety and digital life segments. Consequently, those competitors may influence customers to purchase their products instead of ours through investing more in internal innovation than we can and through their unique access to customer engagement points. Further consolidation among our competitors and within our industry or, in addition to other changes in the competitive environment, such as greater vertical integration from key computing and operating system suppliers could result in larger competitors that compete more frequently with us.

In addition to competing with these vendors directly for sales to end-users of our solutions, we compete with them for the opportunity to have our solutions bundled with the offerings of our strategic partners, such as computer hardware OEMs, internet service providers, operating systems and telecom service providers. Our competitors could gain market share from us if any of these strategic partners replace our solutions with those of our competitors or with their own solutions. Similarly, they could gain market share from us if these partners promote our competitors’ solutions or their own solutions more frequently or more favorably than our solutions. In addition, software vendors who have bundled our solutions with theirs may choose to bundle their solutions with their own or other vendors’ solutions or may limit our access to standard interfaces and inhibit our ability to develop solutions for their platform. Further product development by these vendors could cause our solutions to become redundant, which could significantly impact our sales and operating results.

We cannot be sure that we will accurately predict how the markets in which we compete or intend to compete will evolve. Failure on our part to anticipate changes in our markets and to develop solutions and enhancements that meet the demands of those markets or to effectively compete against our competitors will

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None.

Cybersecurity risk management and strategy

We maintain a cybersecurity program designed to protect our systems and data from information security risks, including regular oversight of our programs for security monitoring. Gen has a process for identifying and assessing material risks from cybersecurity threats on a regular basis that operates alongside our broader overall risk assessment process, covering all identified enterprise wide risks. Cybersecurity risk is reviewed quarterly with management and with the board of directors. In addition, we regularly perform evaluations (including independent third-party evaluations) of our security program and our information technology infrastructure and information security management systems. Our processes also address risk and identification of cybersecurity threat risks from our use of third-party service providers. This involves, among other things, conducting pre-engagement risk-based diligence, reviewing security and controls reports, implementing contractual security and notification provisions, and ongoing monitoring as needed.

Our information security management system is based upon industry frameworks. Our Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) leads our cybersecurity program, which includes the implementation of controls designed to align with these industry frameworks and applicable statutes and regulations. Our CISO has over 30 years of prior work experience in various roles involving managing information security programs, developing cybersecurity strategy, implementing effective information and cybersecurity initiatives and has been the Head of IT Audit, CISO and CIO at three other companies prior to Gen Digital. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems. We have implemented security monitoring capabilities designed to alert us to suspicious activity and developed an incident response program that includes periodic testing and is designed to restore business operations quickly. In addition, employees participate in mandatory annual training and receive communications regarding the cybersecurity environment to increase awareness throughout the company. We also implemented an enhanced annual training program for specific specialized employee populations, including secure coding training.

Governance

The Technology and Cybersecurity Committee of the Board has direct oversight to the Company’s (1) technology strategy, initiatives, and investments and (2) key cybersecurity information technology risks against both internal and external threats. The Technology and Cybersecurity Committee is comprised entirely of independent directors, all of whom have experience related to

information security issues or oversight and meets and reports to the Board on a quarterly basis. The Audit Committee, which is also comprised entirely of independent directors, considers cybersecurity information technology risks in connection with overseeing our enterprise risk management system, and reports to the Board on enterprise risk management matters on a quarterly basis. We have processes in place for management to report security instances to the Technology and Cybersecurity Committee and Audit Committee as they occur, if material, and to provide a summary multiple times per year of other incidents to the Technology and Cybersecurity Committee. Additionally, our CISO attends each Technology and Cybersecurity Committee meeting and meets regularly with the Board of Directors or the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors to brief them on technology and information security matters. We carry insurance that provides protection against some of the potential losses arising from a cybersecurity incident. In the last fiscal three years, we have not experienced any material information security breach incidences and the expenses we have incurred from information security breach incidences were immaterial. This includes penalties and settlements, of which there were none.

We describe whether and how risks from identified cybersecurity threats, including as a result of any previous cybersecurity incidents, have materially affected or are reasonably likely to materially affect us, including our business strategy, results of operations, or financial condition, under the heading “Our solutions, systems, websites and the data on these sources have been in the past and may continue to be subject to cybersecurity events that could materially harm our reputation and future sales.” included as part of ”Risk Factors” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, which disclosures are incorporated by reference herein.

Not applicable.

Information with respect to this Item may be found under the heading “Litigation contingencies” in Note 18 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K which information is incorporated into this Item 3 by reference.

Not applicable.

PART II

Stock symbol and stockholders of record

Our common stock is traded on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the symbol “GEN”. As of March 29, 2024, there were 3,148 stockholders of record. A substantially greater number of holders of our common stock are "street name" or beneficial holders, whose shares of record are held by banks, brokers and other financial institutions.

Stock performance graph

The graph below compares the cumulative total stockholder return on our common stock with the cumulative total return on the S&P 500 Composite Index and the S&P Information Technology Index for the five fiscal years ended March 29, 2024 (assuming the initial investment of $100 in our common stock and in each of the other indices on the last day of trading for fiscal 2019 and the reinvestment of all dividends). The comparisons in the graph below are based on historical data and are not indicative of, nor intended to forecast the possible future performance of our common stock.

COMPARISON OF FIVE-YEAR CUMULATIVE TOTAL RETURN

Among Gen Digital Inc., the S&P 500 Index

and the S&P Information Technology Index

This performance graph shall not be deemed “soliciting material” or to be “filed” for purposes of Section 18 of the Exchange Act, or otherwise subject to the liabilities under that Section, and shall not be deemed to be incorporated by reference into any of our filings under the Securities Act or the Exchange Act.

Repurchases of our equity securities

Stock repurchases during the three months ended March 29, 2024 were as follows:

(1) The number of shares repurchased is reported on trade date.

(2) Under our stock repurchase programs, shares may be repurchased on the open market and through accelerated stock repurchase transactions. As of March 29, 2024, we had $429 million remaining authorized to be completed in future periods with no expiration date. In May 2024, our Board of Directors authorized a new stock repurchase program through which we may repurchase shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $3 billion with no fixed expiration. This new stock repurchase program will supersede any amounts under the prior stock repurchase programs.

Please read the following discussion and analysis of our financial condition and results of operations together with our Consolidated Financial Statements and related Notes thereto included under Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

OVERVIEW

Gen is a global company powering Digital Freedom with a family of trusted consumer brands including Norton, Avast, LifeLock, Avira, AVG, ReputationDefender and CCleaner. Our core cyber safety portfolio provides protection across three key categories in multiple channels and geographies, including security and performance, identity protection, and online privacy. We have built a technology platform that brings together software and service capabilities within these three categories into a comprehensive and easy-to-use integrated platform across our brands. We bring award-winning products and services in cybersecurity, privacy and identity protection to approximately 500 million users in more than 150 countries so they can live their digital lives safely, privately, and confidently today and for generations to come.

Fiscal calendar

We have a 52/53-week fiscal year ending on the Friday closest to March 31. Fiscal 2024, 2023 and 2022 in this report refers to fiscal years ended March 29, 2024, March 31, 2023 and April 1, 2022, respectively, each of which was a 52-week year.

Financial summary

The following table provides our key financial metrics for fiscal 2024 compared with fiscal 2023:

• Net revenues increased $474 million, primarily due to an additional five and a half months of revenue contribution from Avast, up $419 million as compared to the corresponding period, which was acquired during the second quarter of fiscal 2023 in September 2022, and higher sales in both our consumer security and identity and information protection products, partially offset by unfavorable foreign currency fluctuations.

• Operating income (loss) decreased $105 million, primarily due to an increase in legal accrual related to ongoing litigation and an increase in amortization of intangible assets recognized as a result of our acquisition of Avast. This is partially offset by the increase in net revenues discussed above and cost synergies post-acquisition.

• Net income (loss) decreased $733 million and net income per share decreased $1.20, primarily due by the absence of the income tax benefit as a result of a tax capital loss in fiscal 2023, decreased operating income discussed above and increased interest expense associated with our senior credit facilities and two senior notes.

• Cash and cash equivalents increased by $96 million compared to March 31, 2023, primarily due to cash generated from operating activities during fiscal 2024. This is offset by dividends paid to shareholders, voluntary prepayments of our Term B facility, a mandatory principal amortization payment of our Term A facility, and repurchases of our common stock.

• During fiscal 2024, we returned $1,947 million of capital back to shareholders and bondholders. This was achieved through the repurchase of 21 million shares of our common stock, totaling $441 million. Additionally, we paid out a total of $323 million in quarterly dividends and carried out $1,183 million in debt pay downs, including $950 million in voluntary prepayments applied exclusively to the Term B facility.

• During fiscal 2024, we increased net Direct customers by 0.9 million, increased monthly Direct ARPU by $0.15, and increased our Direct retention rate by 1%.

• During fiscal 2024, we received an $899 million income tax refund related to the filing of our fiscal 2023 tax return, which was recorded net of allowances as part of Other current assets in the Condensed Consolidated Balance Sheets as of March 31, 2023.

GLOBAL MACROECONOMIC CONDITIONS

Our results of operations and cash flows are subject to fluctuations due to inflation, changes in foreign currency exchange rates relative to U.S. dollars, our reporting currency, changes in interest rates, as well as recession risks, any of which may persist for an extended period. Additionally, our international results are impacted by the economic conditions in the foreign markets in which we operate and by fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates. We conduct business in numerous currencies throughout our worldwide operations, and our entities hold monetary assets or liabilities, earn revenues, or incur costs in currencies other than the entity’s functional currency. As a result, we are exposed to foreign exchange gains or losses, which impact our operating results. As part of our foreign currency risk mitigation strategy, we have entered into monthly foreign exchange forward contracts to hedge certain foreign currency balance sheet exposure.

In addition, in early 2022, worldwide inflation began to increase. In response to the heightened levels of inflation, central banks, including the U.S. Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, raised interest rates significantly in 2022, resulting in an increase in our cost of debt. Although inflation rates slowed in 2023, global inflation remains high in 2024 and has impacted our results due to higher costs. Volatile market conditions related to geopolitical conflicts and other macroeconomic events have, at times, affected our results of operations and cash flows in non-material ways; however, geopolitical conflicts and other macroeconomic events may in the future materially impact our results of operations and cash flows. Due to our subscription-based business model, the effect of recent macroeconomic events may not be fully reflected in our results of operations until future periods, if at all.

Inflation, interest rates and foreign exchange rates remained volatile in 2023 and fluctuations in these indicators are uncertain and could result in further adverse impacts to our reported results. For a further discussion of the potential impacts of the global macroeconomic conditions on our business, please see “Risk Factors” in Item 1A.

CRITICAL ACCOUNTING ESTIMATES

The preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements and related notes in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. requires us to make estimates, including judgments and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenue and expenses, and related disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. We have based our estimates, judgements and assumptions on historical experience and on various other factors we believe to be reasonable under the circumstances. We evaluate our estimates, judgements and assumptions on a regular basis and make changes accordingly. Management believes that the accounting estimates employed and the resulting amounts are reasonable; however, actual results may differ from these estimates. Making estimates, judgments and assumptions about future events is inherently unpredictable and is subject to significant uncertainties, some of which are beyond our control. Should any of these estimates, judgements or assumptions change or prove to have been incorrect, it could have a material impact on our results of operations, financial position and cash flows.

Management believes the following critical accounting policies reflect the significant estimates used in the preparation of our Consolidated Financial Statements. A summary of our significant accounting policies is included in Note 1, and a description of recently adopted accounting pronouncements and our expectation of the impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements and disclosures are included in Note 2 of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Business combinations

We allocate the purchase price of acquired businesses to the tangible and identifiable intangible assets acquired and liabilities assumed based on their estimated fair values on the acquisition date. Any residual purchase price is recorded as goodwill. The allocation of purchase price requires management to make significant estimates and assumptions in determining the fair values of the assets acquired and liabilities assumed especially with respect to intangible assets.

Critical estimates in valuing intangible assets include, but are not limited to, future expected cash flows from customer relationships, developed technology, trade names, and discount rates. Management estimates of fair value are based upon assumptions believed to be reasonable but which are inherently uncertain and unpredictable. Third-party valuation specialists are utilized for certain estimates. Unanticipated events and circumstances may occur which may affect the accuracy or validity of such assumptions, estimates or actual results.

Income taxes

We are subject to tax in multiple U.S. and foreign tax jurisdictions. We are required to estimate the current tax exposure as well as assess the temporary differences between the accounting and tax treatment of assets and liabilities, including items such as accruals and allowances not currently deductible for tax purposes. We apply judgment in the recognition and measurement of current and deferred income taxes which includes the following critical accounting estimates.

We use a two-step process to recognize liabilities for unrecognized tax benefits. The first step is to evaluate the tax position for recognition by determining if the weight of available evidence indicates that it is more likely than not that the position will be sustained on audit, including resolution of related appeals or litigation processes, if any. There is judgement and complexity involved in assessing if the tax position is more likely than not. If we determine that the tax position will more likely than not be sustained on audit, the second step requires us to estimate and measure the tax benefit as the largest amount that is more than 50% likely to be realized upon ultimate settlement. It is inherently difficult and subjective to estimate such amounts, as this requires us to determine the probability of various outcomes. We re-evaluate these unrecognized tax benefits on a quarterly basis. This evaluation is based on factors including, but not limited to, changes in facts or circumstances, changes in tax law,

effectively settled issues under audit and new audit activity. Such a change in recognition or measurement would result in the recognition of a tax benefit or an additional charge to the tax provision in the period.

Loss contingencies

We are subject to contingencies that expose us to losses, including various legal and regulatory proceedings, asserted and potential claims that arise in the ordinary course of business. An estimated loss from such contingencies is recognized as a charge to income if it is probable that a liability has been incurred and the amount of the loss can be reasonably estimated. Judgment is required in both the determination of probability and the determination as to whether a loss is reasonably estimable. We review the status of each significant matter quarterly, and we may revise our estimates. Until the final resolution of such matters, there may be an exposure to loss in excess of the amount recorded, and such amounts could be material. Should any of our estimates and assumptions change or prove to have been incorrect, it could have a material impact on our Consolidated Financial Statements for that reporting period.

RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

We have elected to omit discussion on the earliest of the three years presented in the Consolidated Financial Statements of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. Refer to Part II, Item 7. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2023 for year-over-year comparisons of the results of operation between fiscal 2023 and fiscal 2022 as well as discussion of fiscal 2022 performance metrics and cash flow activity, all of which are incorporated herein by reference.

The following table sets forth our Consolidated Statements of Operations data as a percentage of net revenues for the periods indicated:

Note: The percentages may not add due to rounding.

Net revenues

Fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023

Net revenues increased $474 million, primarily due to a $388 million increase in sales of our consumer security products and a $88 million increase in sales of our identity and protection products. This was inclusive of $25 million of foreign exchange headwinds, primarily in our consumer security products and a $419 million increase from revenue contribution from Avast due to the additional five and a half months as compared to the corresponding period.

Performance Metrics

We regularly monitor a number of metrics in order to measure our current performance and estimate our future performance. We believe these key operating metrics are useful to investors because management uses these metrics to assess the growth of

our business and the effectiveness of our marketing and operational strategies. Our metrics may be calculated in a manner different than similar metrics used by other companies.

The following table summarizes supplemental key performance metrics for our solutions:

(1) Non-GAAP Direct customer revenue differs from U.S. GAAP direct customer revenue in fiscal 2023 because it excludes a $2 million, reduction of revenue from contract liability purchase accounting adjustments. We believe that eliminating the impact of this adjustment improves the comparability of revenues between periods. In addition, although the adjustment amounts will never be recognized in our U.S. GAAP financial statements, we do not expect the acquisitions to affect the future renewal rates of revenues excluded by the adjustments.

(2) Legacy revenues includes revenues from products or solutions from markets that we have exited and in which we no longer operate, have been discontinued or identified to be discontinued, or remain in maintenance mode as a result of integration and product portfolio decisions.

(3) Due to the close of the acquisition of Avast in the second quarter of fiscal 2023, the fiscal 2023 ARPU is based on the average ARPU for the second, third, and fourth quarter of fiscal 2023, but excludes the first quarter of fiscal 2023.

We define direct customer count as active paid users of our products and solutions who have a direct billing and/or registration relationship with us at the end of the reported period. Average direct customer count presents the average of the total number of direct customers at the beginning and end of the applicable period. We exclude users on free trials from our direct customer count. Users who have indirectly purchased and/or registered for our products or solutions through partners are excluded unless such users convert or renew their subscription directly with us or sign up for a paid membership through our web stores or third-party app stores. The methodologies used to measure these metrics require judgment and are subject to change due to improvements or revisions to our methodology. From time to time, we review our metrics and may discover inaccuracies or make adjustments to improve their accuracy, which can result in adjustments to our historical metrics. Our ability to recalculate our historical metrics may be impacted by data limitations or other factors that require us to apply different methodologies for such adjustments. We generally do not intend to update previously disclosed metrics for any such inaccuracies or adjustments that are deemed not material.

ARPU is calculated as estimated direct customer revenues for the period divided by the average direct customer count for the same period, expressed as a monthly figure. Non-GAAP estimated direct customer revenues and ARPU have limitations as analytical tools and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for U.S. GAAP estimated direct customer revenues or other U.S. GAAP measures. We monitor ARPU because it helps us understand the rate at which we are monetizing our consumer customer base.

Retention rate is defined as the percentage of direct customers as of the end of the period from one year ago who are still active as of the most recently completed fiscal period. We monitor the retention rate to evaluate the effectiveness of our strategies to improve renewals of subscriptions.

Net revenues by geographical region

Percentage of revenue by geographical region as presented below is based on the billing location of the customers.

(1) From time to time, changes in allocation methodologies cause changes to the revenue by geographic area above. When changes occur, we recast historical amounts to match the current methodology, such as for fiscal 2023 where we aligned allocation methodologies across similar product categories.

The Americas include U.S., Canada, and Latin America; EMEA includes Europe, Middle East, and Africa; APJ includes Asia Pacific and Japan.

While the percentage of revenue by geographic region in fiscal 2024 remains primarily in the Americas, our acquisition of Avast has expanded our presence in countries in the EMEA region.

Cost of revenues

Fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023

Our cost of revenues increased $142 million, primarily due to a $93 million increase in the amortization of acquired intangible assets, a $29 million increase in revenue share costs, and a $18 million increase in payment processing fees as a result of higher billings.

Operating expenses

Our operating expenses increased in fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023 primarily due to an increase in legal accruals and amortization of intangible assets. This was partially offset by a decrease in transaction and integration costs, in connection with our acquisition of Avast, which was completed during the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

Fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023

Sales and marketing expense increased $51 million, due to a $32 million increase in advertising, a $9 million increase in occupancy and IT costs, and an $8 million increase in headcount and outside services.

Research and development expense increased $19 million, due to a $10 million increase in headcount and outside services and a $10 million increase in cloud hosting costs.

General and administrative expense increased $318 million, primarily due to a $388 million increase in legal accrual, of which $290 million is related to our litigation case with the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia) and the corresponding legal fees, $52 million related to a legal accrual in the third quarter of fiscal 2024 and a $41 million reversal in legal accrual in the third quarter of fiscal 2023, both of which are related to the GSA litigation. This was partially offset by a $65 million decrease in acquisition and integration costs related to our acquisition of Avast.

Amortization of intangible assets increased $61 million as a result of the acquisition of Avast.

Restructuring and other costs decreased $12 million, primarily due a $10 million decrease in stock-based compensation expense. See Note 12 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for details of the fiscal 2024 restructuring activities.

Non-operating income (expense), net

Fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023

Non-operating income (expense), net, increased $240 million, primarily due to an increase in interest expense associated with borrowings under our senior credit facilities (as defined below) and two senior notes, which were issued during the second quarter of fiscal 2023, and a $33 million increase in loss on equity investments related to the impairment of one of our non-marketable equity investments.

Provision for income taxes

Fiscal 2024 compared to fiscal 2023

Our effective tax rate increased primarily due to a one-time income tax benefit as a result of a tax capital loss in fiscal 2023 partially offset by an income tax benefit as a result of an operational and legal entity restructuring in fiscal 2024. See Note 13 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for information about our unrecognized tax benefits.

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and many countries have proposed to reallocate a portion of profits of large multinational enterprises (MNE) with an annual global turnover exceeding €20 billion to markets where sales arise (Pillar One), as well as enact a global minimum tax rate of at least 15% for MNE with an annual global turnover exceeding €750 million (Pillar Two). On December 12, 2022, the European Union reached an agreement to implement the Pillar Two directive of the OECD’s reform of international taxation at the European Union level. The agreement affirms that all Member States must transpose the Pillar Two directive by December 31, 2023. The rules will therefore first be applicable for fiscal years starting on or after December 31, 2023. Ireland, Czech Republic, and certain jurisdictions in which we operate have enacted legislation to implement Pillar Two and other countries are actively considering changes to their tax laws to adopt certain parts of the OECD’s proposals. The enactment of Pillar Two legislation is not expected to have a material adverse effect on our effective tax rate and Consolidated Financial Statements in the near term. We will continue to monitor and reflect the impact of such legislative changes in future Consolidated Financial Statements as appropriate.

LIQUIDITY, CAPITAL RESOURCES AND CASH REQUIREMENTS

Liquidity and Capital Resources

We have historically relied on cash generated from operations, borrowings under credit facilities, issuances of debt and proceeds from divestitures for our liquidity needs.

Our capital allocation strategy is to balance driving stockholder returns, managing financial risk and preserving our flexibility to pursue strategic options, including acquisitions and mergers. Historically, this has included a quarterly cash dividend, the repayment of debt and the repurchase of shares of our common stock.

Based on past performance and current expectations, we believe that our existing cash and cash equivalents, together with cash generated from operations and amounts available under our Revolving Facility, will be sufficient to meet our working capital needs, support on-going business activities and finance the expected synergy costs related to the acquisition of Avast through at least the next 12 months and to meet our known long-term contractual obligations. We are currently not aware of any trends or demands, commitments, events or uncertainties that will result in or that are reasonably likely to result in our liquidity increasing or decreasing in any material way that will impact our capital needs during or beyond the next 12 months. However, our future liquidity and capital requirements may vary materially from those as of March 29, 2024 depending on several factors, including, but not limited to, economic conditions; political climate; the expansion of sales and marketing activities; the costs to acquire or invest in businesses; and the risks and uncertainties discussed in “Risk Factors” in Item 1A.

Cash flows

The following table summarizes our cash flow activities in fiscal 2024 and 2023:

See Note 7 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for our supplemental cash flow information.

Cash from operating activities

Our cash flows provided by and used in operating activities in fiscal 2024 increased $1,307 million, primarily due to an income tax refund related to the filing of our fiscal 2023 tax return during the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 and cash collections from revenue attributable to our acquisition of Avast during the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

Cash from investing activities

Our cash flows provided by and used in investing activities in fiscal 2024 increased $6,549 million, primarily related to the absence of the total cash consideration paid for our acquisition of Avast during the second quarter of fiscal 2023.

Cash from financing activities

Our cash flows provided by and used in financing activities in fiscal 2024 decreased $6,642 million, primarily due to lower repayments of debt and repurchases of common stock under our repurchase program and by the absence of proceeds from the issuance of debt during the fiscal 2023.

Fiscal 2024 reflects $1,183 million in voluntary prepayments and principal amortization payments of our Term Loans and mortgages and $441 million in repurchases of common stock. In contrast, fiscal 2023 reflects $8,954 million of aggregate proceeds: $3,910 million from Term A Facility, $3,690 million from Term B Facility, $900 million from the 6.75% Senior Notes and $600 million from the 7.125% Senior Notes, net of $146 million of debt issuance costs, offset by the $400 million repayment of our 3.95% Senior Notes, $1,010 million repayment of our Initial Term Loan, $703 million repayment of our Delayed Draw Term Loan, the settlement of the $525 million principal and $100 million equity rights associated with our New 2.0% Convertible Notes, $250 million prepayment of our Term B Facility, and $59 million mandatory amortization payments of our Term A and Term B Facility. Repurchases of common stock in fiscal 2023 were $904 million.

Cash and cash equivalents

As of March 29, 2024, we had cash and cash equivalents of approximately $846 million, of which $379 million was held by our foreign subsidiaries. Our cash and cash equivalents are managed with the objective to preserve principal, maintain liquidity and generate investment returns. The participation exemption system under current U.S. federal tax regulations generally allows us to make distributions of non-U.S. earnings to the U.S. without incurring additional U.S. federal tax; however, these distributions may be subject to applicable state or non-U.S. taxes.

Debt

We have an undrawn revolving credit facility of $1,500 million, which expires in September 2027.

Stock repurchases

During the fiscal 2024 and 2023, we executed repurchases of 21 million and 40 million of our common stock under our existing stock repurchase program for an aggregate amount of $441 million and $904 million, respectively.

Material Cash Requirements

Our principal cash requirements are primarily to meet our working capital needs, support on-going business activities, including payment of taxes and cash dividends, payment of contractual obligations, funding capital expenditures, servicing existing debt, repurchasing shares of our common stock and investing in business acquisitions and mergers.

Debt instruments

As of March 29, 2024, our total outstanding principal amount of indebtedness is summarized as follows. See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information on our debt.

The Credit Agreement contains customary representations and warranties and affirmative and negative covenants, including compliance with specified financial ratios. As of March 29, 2024, we were in compliance with all debt covenants. See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information regarding financial ratios and debt covenant compliance.

Dividends

On May 9, 2024, we announced a cash dividend of $0.125 per share of common stock to be paid in June 2024. Any future dividends and dividend equivalents will be subject to the approval from our Board of Directors.

Stock repurchase program

Under our stock repurchase program, we may purchase shares of our outstanding common stock on the open market (including through trading plans intended to qualify under Rule 10b5-1 under the Exchange Act) and through accelerated stock repurchase transactions. As of March 29, 2024, the remaining balance of our stock repurchase authorization is $429 million and does not have an expiration date. In May 2024, our Board of Directors authorized a new stock repurchase program through which we may repurchase shares of our common stock in an aggregate amount of up to $3 billion with no fixed expiration. This new stock repurchase program will supersede any amounts under the prior stock repurchase programs. The timing and actual number of shares repurchased will depend on a variety of factors, including price, general business and market conditions and other investment opportunities.

Restructuring

In connection with the acquisition of Avast, our Board of Directors approved a restructuring plan (the September 2022 Plan) to realize cost savings and operational synergies, which became effective upon the close of the acquisition on September 12, 2022. We have incurred and expect to incur cash expenditures for severance and termination benefits, contract terminations, facilities closures, and the sale of underutilized facilities as well as stock-based compensation charges for accelerated equity awards for certain terminated employees. We expect that we will incur total costs up to $150 million following the completion of the acquisition. These actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal 2025. During fiscal 2024, we made $41 million in cash payments related to the September 2022 Plan. See Note 12 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further cash flow information associated with our restructuring activities.

Significant contractual obligations

The following is a schedule of our principal commitments as of March 29, 2024. The expected timing and amount of short-term and long-term payments of the obligations in the following table is estimated based on current information. Timing of payments and actual amounts paid may be different, depending on the time of receipt of goods or services, or changes to agreed-upon amounts for certain obligations.

(1)As of March 29, 2024, our total outstanding principal amount of indebtedness is comprised of $6,110 million in Term Loans, $2,600 million in Senior Notes and $6 million in mortgage loans. See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information about our debt and debt covenants.

(2)Interest payments calculated based on the contractual terms of the related debt instruments. Interest on variable rate debt was calculated using the interest rate in effect as of March 29, 2024. Interest on variable rate debt may vary based on the performance of our interest rate swaps. See Note 10 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information on the term loans and senior notes.

(3)Agreements for purchases of goods or services, with terms that are enforceable and legally binding and specify all significant terms, including fixed or minimum quantities to be purchased; fixed, minimum, or variable price provisions; and the approximate timing of the transaction. These amounts include agreements to purchase goods or services that have cancellation provisions requiring little or no payment. The amounts under such contracts are included because management believes that cancellation of these contracts is unlikely, and we expect to make future cash payments according to the contract terms or in similar amounts for similar materials.

(4)Transition tax payments on previously untaxed foreign earnings of foreign subsidiaries under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which may be paid through July 2025.

(5)Payments for various non-cancelable operating lease agreements that expire on various dates through fiscal 2030. The amounts in the table above exclude expected sublease income. See Note 9 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information on leases.

Due to the uncertainty with respect to the timing of future cash flows associated with our unrecognized tax benefits and other long-term taxes as of March 29, 2024, we are unable to make reasonably reliable estimates of the period of cash settlement with the respective taxing authorities. Therefore, $1,346 million in long-term income taxes payable has been excluded from the contractual obligations table. See Note 13 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information.

Indemnifications

In the ordinary course of business, we may provide indemnifications of varying scope and terms to customers, vendors, lessors, business partners, subsidiaries, and other parties with respect to certain matters, including, but not limited to, product warranties and losses arising out of our breach of agreements or representations and warranties made by us, including claims alleging that our software infringes on the intellectual property rights of a third party. In addition, our bylaws contain indemnification obligations to our directors, officers, employees and agents, and we have entered into indemnification agreements with our directors and certain of our officers to give such directors and officers additional contractual assurances regarding the scope of the indemnification set forth in our bylaws and to provide additional procedural protections. We maintain director and officer insurance, which may cover certain liabilities arising from our obligation to indemnify our directors and officers. Refer to Note 18 of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information on our indemnifications.

We are exposed to various market risks related to fluctuations in interest rates and foreign currency exchange rates. We may use derivative and non-derivative financial instruments to reduce the volatility of earnings and cash flow that may result from adverse economic conditions and events or changes in foreign currency and interest rates.

Interest rate risk

As of March 29, 2024, we had $2,606 million in aggregate principal amount of fixed-rate Senior Notes, with a carrying amount and a fair value of $2,624 million, based on Level 2 inputs. The fair value of these notes fluctuates when interest rates change. Since these notes bear interest at fixed rates, the financial statement risk associated with changes in interest rates is limited to future refinancing of current debt obligations. If these notes were refinanced at higher interest rates prior to maturity, our total interest payments could increase by a material amount; however, this risk is mitigated by our strong cash position and expected future cash generated from operations, which will be sufficient to satisfy this increase in obligation.

As of March 29, 2024, we also had $6,110 million outstanding debt with variable interest rates based on the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (SOFR). A hypothetical 100 basis point change in SOFR would have resulted in a $61 million increase in interest expense on an annualized basis.

In March 2023, we entered into interest rate swap agreements to mitigate risks associated with the variable interest rate of our Term A Facility. These pay-fixed, receive-floating rate interest rate swaps have the economic effect of hedging the variability of forecasted interest payments until their maturity on March 31, 2026. Pursuant to the agreements, we have effectively converted $1 billion of our variable rate borrowings under Term A Facility to fixed rates, with $500 million at a fixed rate of 3.762% and $500 million at a fixed rate of 3.55%. A hypothetical 100 basis point increase or decrease in interest rates would have resulted in a $18 million increase or $18 million decrease in the fair values of our floating to fixed rate interest swaps at March 29, 2024.

The objective of our interest rate swaps, all of which are designated as cash flow hedges, is to manage the variability of future interest expense.

In addition, we have a $1,500 million revolving credit facility that if drawn bears interest at a variable rate based on SOFR and would be subject to the same risks associated with adverse changes in SOFR.

Foreign currency exchange rate risk

We conduct business in numerous currencies through our worldwide operations, and our entities hold monetary assets or liabilities, earn revenues or incur costs in currencies other than the entity’s functional currency, primarily in Euro, Japanese Yen, British Pound, Australian Dollar, Czech Koruna and Canadian Dollar. In addition, we charge our international subsidiaries for their use of intellectual property and technology and for certain corporate services provided. Our cash flow, results of operations and certain of our intercompany balances that are exposed to foreign exchange rate fluctuations may differ materially from expectations, and we may record significant gains or losses due to foreign currency fluctuations and related hedging activities. As a result, we are exposed to foreign exchange gains or losses which impacts our operating results.

Growth in our international operations will incrementally increase our exposure to foreign currency fluctuations as well as volatile market conditions, including the weakening of foreign currencies relative to USD, which has and may in the future negatively affect our revenue expressed in USD.

We manage these exposures and reduce the potential effects of currency fluctuations by executing monthly foreign exchange forward contracts to hedge foreign currency balance sheet exposures. The gains and losses on these foreign exchange contracts are recorded in Other income (expense), net in the Consolidated Statements of Operations.

We do not use derivative financial instruments for speculative trading purposes, nor do we hedge our foreign currency exposure in a manner that entirely offsets the effects of the changes in foreign exchange rates. As our international operations grow, we will continue to reassess our approach to managing risks related to fluctuations in foreign currency.

Additional information with respect to our debt and derivative instruments is included in Note 10 and Note 11, respectively, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The Consolidated Financial Statements and related disclosures included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report are incorporated by reference into this Item 8. In addition, there were no material retrospective changes to any quarters in the two most recent fiscal years that would require supplementary disclosure.

None.

(a) Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

The SEC defines the term “disclosure controls and procedures” to mean a company’s controls and other procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is recorded, processed, summarized, and reported, within the time periods specified in the SEC’s rules and forms. “Disclosure controls and procedures” include, without limitation, controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by an issuer in the reports that it files or submits under the Exchange Act is accumulated and communicated to the issuer’s management, including its principal executive and principal financial officers, or persons performing similar functions, as appropriate to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our disclosure controls and procedures are designed to provide reasonable assurance that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management. Our management (with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer) has conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) of the Exchange Act).

Based on such evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer have concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective at the reasonable assurance level as of the end of the period covered by this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

(b) Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting (as defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) of the Exchange Act) for Gen Digital. Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and our Chief Financial Officer, has conducted an evaluation of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of March 29, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control - Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission (COSO).

Our management has concluded that, as of March 29, 2024, our internal control over financial reporting was effective at the reasonable assurance level based on these criteria.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting, as of March 29, 2024, has been audited by KPMG LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report, which is included in Part IV, Item 15 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

(c) Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There were no changes in our internal control over financial reporting identified in connection with the evaluation required by Rule 13a-15(d) and 15d-15(d) of the Exchange Act that occurred during the fiscal quarter ended March 29, 2024 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

(d) Limitations on Effectiveness of Controls

Our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, does not expect that our disclosure controls and procedures or our internal controls will prevent all errors and all fraud. A control system, no matter how well conceived and operated, can provide only reasonable, not absolute, assurance that the objectives of the control system are met. Further, the design of a control system must reflect the fact that there are resource constraints, and the benefits of controls must be considered relative to their costs. Because of the inherent limitations in all control systems, no evaluation of controls can provide absolute assurance that all control issues and instances of fraud, if any, within our company have been detected.

Insider adoption or termination of trading arrangements

During the fiscal quarter ended March 29, 2024, none of our directors or officers informed us of the adoption or termination of a “Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement” or “non-Rule 10b5-1 trading arrangement,” as defined in Regulation S-K, Item 408.

Not applicable.

PART III

The information required by this item will be included under the caption “Directors, Executive Officers, and Corporate Governance” in our proxy statement for the 2024 Annual Meeting to be filed with the SEC within 120 days of the fiscal year ended March 29, 2024 (the 2024 Proxy Statement) and is incorporated herein by reference. With regard to the information required by this item regarding compliance with Section 16(a) of the Exchange Act, we will provide disclosure of delinquent Section 16(a) reports, if any, in the 2024 Proxy Statement, and such disclosure, if any, is incorporated herein by reference.

Insider trading arrangements and policies

We are committed to promoting high standards of ethical business conduct and compliance with applicable laws, rules and regulations. As part of this commitment, we have adopted our Insider Trading Policy governing the purchase, sale, and/or other dispositions of our securities by our directors, officers, and employees that we believe is reasonably designed to promote compliance with insider trading laws, rules and regulations, and the exchange listing standards applicable to us. A copy of our Insider Trading Policy is filed as Exhibit 19.01 to this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

The information required by this item will be included under the caption “Executive Compensation” in our 2024 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference (excluding the information under the subheading “Pay Versus Performance”).

The information required by this item will be included under the caption “Security Ownership of Certain Beneficial Owners and Management and Related Stockholder Matters” in our 2024 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

The information required by this item will be included under the caption “Certain Relationships and Related Transactions, and Director Independence” in our 2024 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

Our independent registered public accounting firm is KPMG, LLP, Santa Clara, CA, Auditor Firm ID: 185.

The information required by this item will be included under the caption “Principal Accountant Fees and Services” in our 2024 Proxy Statement and is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

(a)

(1). Financial Statements

Upon written request, we will provide, without charge, a copy of this annual report, including the Consolidated Financial Statements and financial statement schedule. All requests should be sent to:

Gen Digital Inc.

Attn: Investor Relations

60 E. Rio Salado, Suite 1000

Tempe, Arizona 85281

(650) 527-8000

The following documents are filed as part of this report:

Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm

To the Stockholders and Board of Directors

Gen Digital Inc.:

Opinions on the Consolidated Financial Statements and Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of Gen Digital Inc. and subsidiaries (the Company) as of March 29, 2024 and March 31, 2023, the related consolidated statements of operations, comprehensive income (loss), stockholders’ equity (deficit), and cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended March 29, 2024, and the related notes (collectively, the consolidated financial statements). We also have audited the Company’s internal control over financial reporting as of March 29, 2024, based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

In our opinion, the consolidated financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the Company as of March 29, 2024 and March 31, 2023, and the results of its operations and its cash flows for each of the years in the three-year period ended March 29, 2024, in conformity with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles. Also in our opinion, the Company maintained, in all material respects, effective internal control over financial reporting as of March 29, 2024 based on criteria established in Internal Control – Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission.

Basis for Opinions

The Company’s management is responsible for these consolidated financial statements, for maintaining effective internal control over financial reporting, and for its assessment of the effectiveness of internal control over financial reporting, included in the accompanying Management’s Report on Internal Control over Financial Reporting. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the Company’s consolidated financial statements and an opinion on the Company’s internal control over financial reporting based on our audits. We are a public accounting firm registered with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (United States) (PCAOB) and are required to be independent with respect to the Company in accordance with the U.S. federal securities laws and the applicable rules and regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the PCAOB.

We conducted our audits in accordance with the standards of the PCAOB. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audits to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the consolidated financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether due to error or fraud, and whether effective internal control over financial reporting was maintained in all material respects.

Our audits of the consolidated financial statements included performing procedures to assess the risks of material misstatement of the consolidated financial statements, whether due to error or fraud, and performing procedures that respond to those risks. Su

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None.

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the Registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Mountain View, State of California, on the 15th day of May 2024.

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the Registrant and in the capacities and on the dates indicated below.