Symantec's John Thompson resigns from utility company NiSource board

John W. Thompson, chairman and chief executive officer of Symantec Corp., has resigned his board seat from utility company NiSource Inc., board of directors.

His resignation comes less than two months after Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec completed its $11 billion takeover of Veritas Software Corp.

Thompson has had to sell the merits of that merger to wall street because of concerns over the lack of apparent synergy between the antivirus and storage software vendor.

Thompson resigned from the NiSource board in order to limit his outside commitments and devote a greater portion of his time to Symantec, a Symantec spokeswoman said.

Thompson who has served 12 years on the board of directors has just been re-elected to the NiSource board at its annual meeting on May 10. Thompson notified NiSource of his decision to resign on Aug. 24, according to a filing with the SEC.

Thompson will retain his seat on the UPS and Seagate boards of directors, according to Genevieve Haldeman, a Symantec spokeswoman.