Veritas Discloses Material Weakness In Financial-Reporting Controls

Veritas Software Inc. has again delayed the filing of its 2004 10-K report in order to give its auditor, KPMG, more time to complete the assessment of the company's control over internal financial reporting, as required by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act's section 404.

Veritas last month notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that the filing would be delayed beyond the original March 16 deadline until March 31. It now says the filing will be delayed until April 11. The delay won't affect its pending merger with Symantec Corp., the company said in a statement.

The company has determined that two "significant deficiencies" in internal controls constitute a material weakness. One deficiency relates to controls over order-entry processes and the other relates to the review of software licenses. A material weakness means there's more than a remote likelihood that financial-reporting inaccuracies will go undetected. Veritas doesn't expect the material weakness to result in any adjustments to previously released financial statements.