Symantec Fulfilling Promise of Security Technology with Stellar Quarter

The security technology vendor posted revenue of $325 million the second quarter ended Sept. 27, a 34 percent increase compared to $242 million for the same quarter last year. Symantec's net income under GAAP guidelines, including one-time charges and the amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets, was $52 million, compared to a net loss of $12 million from the same quarter last year. Symantec reported earnings per share of 33 cents, compared to a net loss per share of 8 cents for the year-ago quarter.

"Our business, both consumer and enterprise, is firing on all cylinders across every region," John Thompson, Symantec chairman and CEO, said in the earnings call.

Symantec said its worldwide enterprise security business grew 30 percent compared to the same quarter last year and represented 44 percent of total revenue. The company's enterprise business was boosted by 61 percent growth in firewall/VPN sales and 36 percent growth in anti-virus sales compared to the same quarter last year. Symantec's security services revenue also grew a whopping 102 percent compared to the same quarter last year, driven by a massive jump in managed security services. Earlier this year, Symantec revamped its partner program and began dishing out integration services to channel partners in an effort to focus more on managed services.

Overall, Symantec's increase in enterprise business gave a boost to a security technology industry that had yet to ease the growing concern over security in the last year within both private corporations and government agencies. For now, the company neutralized doubts about the demand for security technology at the enterprise level, adding new or extending contracts with several large corporations. "Symantec generated 116 contracts worldwide worth more than $100,000, including 28 worth more than $300,000 and five worth more than $1 million, during the quarter," Thompson said in a statement.

In addition, Symantec's consumer business grew 68 percent and represented 38 percent of total revenue, supported by continued strength in consumer anti-virus revenue, which grew 76 percent compared to the same quarter last year. The company also experienced growth overseas, as international revenue, which makes up nearly 50 percent of Symantec's business, grew 45 percent over the same quarter last year and showed growth in every region--Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Canada, Japan and Asia-Pacific.

Symantec has shown no signs of slowing down its enterprise blitz. Earlier this month, it unveiled its new enterprise strategy to provide comprehensive security environments through the Symantec Enterprise Security Architecture, an open, standards-based framework that enables Symantec and third-party vendor solutions and partners to create integrated, scalable security systems.

Symantec also raised its forecast for the fiscal year, increasing its expected earnings from $1.42 to $1.55 per share and $1.31 billion in revenue to $1.33 billion.