Symantec income up 15 per cent

Adjusted 2008 earnings rise on back of solid £3bn annual revenues

Symantec CEO John W Thompson is reaping the benefits of an expanded product portfolio

Security and storage software giant Symantec reported net income of $464m (£234m) for its fiscal year 2008, up 15 per cent from $404m (£203m) in 2007, with revenues rising 13 per cent to $5.9bn (£3bn) during the course of the year.

Net income for the fourth quarter of 2008 reached $186m (£94m), up from $61m (£31m) in Q4 2007. Quarterly revenue was $1.5bn (£755m), a third of which, £520m (£262m), came from the EMEA region, where sales revenues rose 17 per cent year on year.

Yearly revenues from Symantec's Security and Compliance segment grew 21 per cent from $1.4bn (£705m) in 2007 to $1.6bn (£806m). Sales from Symantec's Storage and Server Management segment remained relatively flat at $2.15bn (£1.1bn) for the year.

Symantec CEO John W Thompson cited a "broader portfolio of products and services" for the positive results. Symantec has made a number of acquisitions in the past few years, including its $13.5bn (£6.8bn) purchase of Veritas in 2004, and more recently software management firm Altiris, data loss prevention company Vontu, risk assessment specialist Reston and network management firm Relicore.

Symantec also expects to acquire application virtualisation vendor AppStream for an undisclosed sum in June.