Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Yes, ma'am. (Operator Instructions)
Helyn Corcos
While Tom is polling for questions, I'd like to update you on four upcoming events.
First, Symantec will be hosting our financial analysts day on June 11th in San Francisco, so please mark your calendars.
Second, we encourage you to attend Managed Fusion, our annual customer conference during the week of March 9th in Las Vegas.
Third, we'll be presenting at three financial analyst conferences this quarter.
And fourth, we will be reporting our fiscal fourth quarter and fiscal year end 2009 results on May 6th.
For a complete list of all our investor-related events, please visit the Events Calendar on the IR website.
Tom, we're ready for our first question.
Operator
Your first question comes from Sarah Friar - Goldman Sachs.
Sarah Friar - Goldman Sachs
James, just on the margin side, on the guidance for the fourth quarter, it seems low, and I know you're incorporating MessageLabs there, but excluding the dilution from MessageLabs, is your assumption that the margins on the core business stay flat or decline into the fourth quarter and why would they decline?
James Beer
Well, what we have tried to do on all of these guided figures is adjust for currency and so I made the comment that the midpoint of our guidance would equate to $0.35 versus the $0.36 that we recorded in the March quarter of last year.
Now, as you point out, we are going to be experiencing some dilution associated with the MessageLabs acquisition. When we entered into that deal we pointed out that we were going to have $0.02 dilution for the balance of the fiscal year, with the significant majority of that coming in the March quarter.
So when you make that adjustment as well, our midpoint guided EPS would be actually coming in in advance of what we recorded last year.
Sarah Friar - Goldman Sachs
Sure, but sequentially -
James Beer
[Inaudible] gives you a sense as to how we're thinking generally about the business.
Sarah Friar - Goldman Sachs
But I guess the question was a little bit more sequentially. You just put up those great operating margins in December and you've been on this very nice ramp to improve margin. Why then the downtick sequentially, I guess?
James Beer
Well, there are clearly a variety of different factors that will drive this. At the start of any calendar year, there will be some costs that kick in again. So, for example, the 401(k) match begins again. Payroll taxes begin again. So you would naturally see a cost increment in the March quarter over a December quarter typically.
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