Symantec And Websense Adapt Offerings To Mobile Technology

A 2011 IDC report on the network security market estimated that this market will be worth $9.5 billion by 2014. Of this, software will account for 26% of the market and will grow at a faster rate over the next few years. Hardware-based security appliances were projected to end last year with revenues of $6.58 billion and were projected to grow to $7 billion by 2014. Security market players are working on new and expanded offerings to capture a bigger piece of this high-growth market.

Symantec’s Financials
Symantec’s (Nasdaq:SYMC) Q2 revenues grew 14% over the year to $1.66 billion. On a constant currency basis, revenues would have grown 9% over the year. They saw their Security and Compliance revenues increase 27% over the year, while consumer sales grew 11% over the same period. Storage and Server Management revenues also grew an impressive 9% over the year. EPS of $0.39 was significantly higher than previous year’s EPS of $0.17. The market was looking for revenues of $1.67 billion with EPS of $0.39.

For the current quarter, Symantec projects revenues of $1.70 billion-$1.715 billion with EPS of $0.40-$0.41. The Street was looking for revenues of $1.72 billion with EPS of $0.41.

Symantec’s Expanding Offerings
Symantec continued to expand their product offerings, especially in the mobile space. Recently, they launched the Symantec Mobile Security Assessment Suite, a set of services focused on helping organizations assess their mobile security infrastructure and develop stronger defenses against mobile threats. Symantec believes that because mobile technology is still going through a growth spurt, organizations are not entirely ready to handle the threats associated with it. The Assessment Suite will entail an evaluation of the level of risk within the enterprise’s mobile device space through multiple tests and a subsequent report detailing the high-level analysis, findings, and recommendations.

They also enhanced their footprint within the Small and Medium business space by announcing a new security and backup track for the sector. As part of this SMB focus, Symantec will offer tailored services and support for the segment, including the Symantec Technical Support Center and access to a dedicated SMB support team and sales support.

Symantec Divests Huawei
Meanwhile, Symantec sold off their 49% stake in Huawei Symantec Technologies for $530 million in cash to Hong Kong–based Huawei. Huawei Symantec was a joint venture between Huawei and Symantec to offer security, storage, and systems management solutions for the security and network storage sector. The sale is expected to help Symantec as the entity has suffered losses for the past three years.

Their stock is trading at $15.91 with a market capitalization of $11.73 billion. It touched a 52-week high of $20.50 in May 2011.

Websense’s Financials
Websense’s (Nasdaq:WBSN) Q3 revenues of $92.1 million grew 9% over the year. Software and services revenues remained relatively flat at $81.8 million, while Appliance revenues grew 34% over the year to $10.3 million. Net income of $0.20 per share was higher than previous year’s $0.13 per share.

Websense
Websense won several accolades during the quarter for their products. A recently released Frost & Sullivan report rated them as the leader in the APAC Web security market in 2010 driven by their solutions, which eliminate duplication of systems and share required information across the web, data, and email channel. The company was also ranked as the Best Web Security Product of 2011 by TechTarget, a top site for security news.

Their stock is trading at $18.50 with a market capitalization of $718.17 million. It touched a 52-week high of $27.96 in March 2011.