Symantec profit down 57 per cent

Symantec profits dive nearly 60 per cent

Security vendor Symantec reported first quarter financial results today, showing a 13 per cent drop in revenue to $1.44bn (£873m), from last year's $1.65bn (£1bn). Adjusted for currency and an extra week in the first financial quarter of 2010, Symantec said the figure represented a four per cent drop.

But net income took a bigger dive to $73m (£44m), from last year's figure of $172m (£104m) - a 57 per cent fall.

Symantec chief executive Enrique Salem said that although the firm was pleased with the performance of the consumer business, corporate clients have proved tougher this year.

"On the enterprise side, some customers focused their spending on shorter-term contracts or maintenance renewals, resulting in fewer new licence deals, but stronger deferred revenue,” he said.

The revenue breakdown for Symantec's products and services was: storage and server management represented 38 per cent of revenue; consumer was 31 per cent; security and compliance totalled 24 per cent; and services added the remaining seven per cent.

Symantec is predicting second quarter revenue will flatten out compared with a year ago, at around $1.42bn (£861m).