Security Threats to Big Data Help Symantec Beat the Street

Data protection and software management provider Symantec beat Wall Street analyst expectations for its fiscal first quarter thanks to strong performance from its security and data storage business lines.

Symantec July 27 reported net income of $172 million, or 22 cents a share, for the fiscal first quarter ended June 30. Non-GAAP earnings were 40 cents a share, exceeding analyst predictions of earnings at 37 cents a share.

Symantec saw revenues of $1.65 billion for quarter, a 15 percent growth from the same period a year ago.

All divisions "executed very well," and "performance was driven by strength in backup, data loss prevention, managed security services and consumer," Enrique Salem, CEO of Symantec, said on the earnings call with analysts.

Enterprise storage and server management contributed 36 percent of total revenue in the quarter, up 7 percent over the year-ago period, and Salem is confident the gains will continue. Symantec generated 281 transactions valued at more than $300,000, and 74 percent included multiple products, James Beer, Symantec's CFO, said on the earnings call. The company closed 57 deals valued at more than $1 million.

Storage and availability management grew 3 percent as Symantec expanded its platform from Sun Solaris and other Unix platforms to Linux and Windows environments. Salem specifically highlighted Symantec's successful Red Hat partnership as "we help organizations migrate to Linux."

Symantec also realized $3 million in revenue from the Clearwell acquisition, which closed earlier than expected on June 24, Beer said.

The consumer business unit remained unaffected by the industrywide weakness in consumer demand for personal computers, Salem said.

"The current threat environment is driving increased awareness for information security," Salem said. Symantec's Norton security products go beyond the PC to protect users through a variety of cloud and mobile offerings, he said.

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