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Symantec achieves 36% growth in AP

Security-software maker Symantec Corp expects Asia Pacific to continue to be its fastest growing market despite the regional economic slowdown.
Written by Irene Tham, Contributor
Security software maker Symantec Corp expects Asia Pacific to continue to be its fastest growing market despite the regional economic slowdown.

SINGAPORE--In fact, the region (excluding Japan) saw 36 percent growth year-on-year for the third quarter ended December 2000. This was "despite the tumbling Aussie dollar," said Symantec Asia Pacific vice president Garry Sexton.

"Such growth was contributed by opportunities in fast growing markets such as Malaysia and China, as well as the key markets of New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, India and Korea," Sexton said in an interview.

Looking forward, he expects significant sales growth to come from enterprises, buoyed by the recent acquisition of Axent Technologies Inc.

The purchase of Axent will offer Symantec high-end enterprise security offerings including firewall, virtual private network and intrusion, and vulnerability detection, Sexton said.

"The purchase of Axent is fundamental to our success worldwide," he noted.

Demand for such products is growing as more companies in Asia Pacific become e-enabled, Sexton explained. He would not reveal the company's revenue targets for the region.

Cupertino, California-based Symantec, best known for its Norton Utilities and Norton AntiVirus solutions, completed the acquisition of Rockville, Maryland-based Axent for about US$975 million in stock on December 18, 2000.

For the third quarter ended December 2000, Symantec posted total net revenues of US$219.3 million, of which US$7.9 million was contributed by Axent. Net income (before acquisition-related amortization and one-time charges) was US$51.4 million, up 45 percent from US$35.4 million in 1999.

Revenues from markets outside of the US contributed 46 percent to total sales for the quarter. The European market grew 19 percent while the Japanese market grew 29 percent. The company does not provide revenue breakdowns for each region.

In Q3, Symantec's corporate business accounted for 53 percent of total regional revenues, with the remaining 47 percent from consumer sales, Sexton said.

Over the next 12 months, he expects contributions from corporate sales to grow to 60 percent of revenues from the region, in line with Symantec's global projections.

The Nasdaq-listed company last traded at US$42.12, down US$0.38.

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