Symantec Income Rises on Back of Storage Business

Symantec reported significant year-over-year growth in its most recent quarter, riding on a strong uptick in its storage and services business.

In the second quarter of fiscal 2009, which ended for Symantec Oct. 3, the company's net income reached $140 million—a $90 million increase over the income the company reported during the same period in 2008. Overall, the company posted a total of $1.518 billion in revenue.

Symantec's Storage and Server Management segment represented 38 percent of total non-GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles) revenue for the quarter, representing the largest share of the company's revenue. The Consumer segment represented 29 percent of non-GAAP revenue, while the Security and Compliance business represented 26 percent.

Click here to read about Symantec's purchase of MessageLabs to build out its SAAS (software-as-a-service) business.

The fastest growing segment of Symantec's business was its Services business, which grew 16 percent year over year. The Storage and Server Management division, which grew 12 percent year over year, was next. Symantec's Security and Compliance segment, however, did not fare as well—it grew only 1 percent year over year.

Symantec signed 326 agreements worldwide, compared with 302 in the same period a year ago. Of the 326 agreements, 77 had a value of more than $1 million each, versus 64 during the same period in fiscal 2008. Some 87 percent of the deals in the latest quarter involved multiple products.

"In the face of a slowing economic environment around the world, Symantec continued to generate growth in both our core business and in high-growth areas [that] are becoming increasingly important to our customers," John W. Thompson, CEO of Symantec, said in a statement. "I am also quite pleased with our continued operating margin expansion and earnings growth, which is a result of our ongoing focus on managing costs and expenses."