Security company Symantec Corp. posted revenue of $1,041 million (+15 percent) in its third quarter of fiscal year 2017 results, ended December 30, 2016.
Symantec generated $644 million (+30 percent) from enterprise security business and $397 million (–4 percent) from consumer security business in Q3. The technology company is forecasting a drop in revenue in consumer security business and significant increase in enterprise security revenue in Q4.
“We predict there will be less than a handful of strategic security providers, Symantec being one, which will have made the appropriate technology investments to lead in the cloud generation of security. Investment in solutions that help customers migrate to the cloud is core to our long-term plan,” said Greg Clark, CEO of Symantec.
In December, the value of Symantec threat intelligence was demonstrated with the disclosure of its assistance to the FBI in tracking and arresting the cyber group called Bayrob, who was responsible up to $35 million in thefts and more than 300,000 compromised computers.
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Analyst firm Technology Business Review, in its earnings analysis report, said a portion of 15 percent growth came from the vendor’s 2016 acquisition of Blue Coat Systems, which TBR estimates added $125 million to Symantec’s revenue in Q3. Symantec’s recent integration efforts also contributed to its strong results.
Symantec has been integrating key products from its legacy portfolio with the Blue Coat additions to offer more comprehensive solutions such as its Symantec Endpoint Protection Cloud (SEPC).
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Symantec will acquire smaller rival LifeLock to expand its consumer security business. LifeLock protects consumers from identity theft. “After focusing most of its development and go-to-market strategies on the enterprise security market for the past two years, Symantec’s move into consumer identity protection represents a fresh start for the vendor’s consumer security business unit, called Norton,” said Jane Wright, principal analyst.
Norton solutions, such as anti-virus scanning software, have been designed for PCs and Macs. But Symantec’s revenue from Norton solutions has experienced negative revenue growth for the past three years.
TBR said the LifeLock acquisition will enable Symantec to add more consumers, including those who rarely touch a PC but are technically savvy and want to safeguard their identities on their mobile devices. The addition of LifeLock’s 4.4 million users, with their potential membership renewals, will generate year-to-year revenue growth in Symantec’s consumer security business unit in 2017.
Symantec added machine learning technologies to its flagship Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP) product to more quickly detect and warn customers of security threats, including threats that have never been seen before.
TBR said the capabilities will enhance the value of Symantec’s solution while helping the technology vendor compete with companies such as Intel Security Group, Palo Alto Networks and FireEye that also apply machine learning in many of their security solutions.
