F-Secure's turnover in antivirus grew by 44% in year 2005 In February, F-Secure announced continued strong growth figures in its interim report stating that the company had been growing faster than its stock exchange listed competitors for ten consecutive quarters. The company was able to raise its EBIT up to 7,4m euro for the complete year (6,5m in 2004) despite investments and other extensive inputs to bolster the company's standing. The fastest growth was seen in the consumer and the service provider businesses. In the timespan of 2005, F-Secure hired 119 new professionals to meet the challenges of the future market, the majority of whom were located in Finland. Nevertheless, over 64% of the corporation's turnover comes from outside the Nordic countries and international expansion particularly in Asia and North America is a key part of the company's strategy.Despite the general buoyance of the data security market, in the last quarter of 2005 the industry showed a considerable slowdown in growth compared to the previous year. Contrary to this trend, F-Secure's growth accelerated by over 50 %.The graph above represents F-Secure's growth in the last ten quarters compared to other publicly listed competitors. In the last quarter of 2005 the industry showed a considerable slowdown in growth compared to the last year. Contrary to this trend, F-Secure's growth accelerated by over 50 %.In 2005 F-Secure announced a number of new product solutions. In its product announcements the company has taken special consideration of the fastest developing and latest business models in the field of data security. In this manner, F-Secure has been able to create new business possibilities in the data security ecosystem for different parties such as the corporate business focused Internet or IT service providers, consumer ISP enterprises and mobile phone operators.In its offering directed to the corporate sector, F-Secure expanded its range with the F-Secure Messaging Security Gateway solution, which has been well received by the market. For service providers, the F-Secure Service platforms offer flexible and efficient solutions. The product range includes different platforms for various target groups and respond to the needs of corporations, small businesses, consumers, mobile phone users, operator networks and gateway solutions. As reported in the last Protected, F-Secure expanded its range also with the acquisition in autumn of Rommon Ltd, a Finnish company, which brings service providers a network level solution to observe and control disruptive network traffic. The new F-Secure Network Control combined solution prevents network abuse and network-based attacks, which typically cause bandwidth problems or denial of service. In the consumer sector, growth has been underpinned by the increased availability of fast Internet connections globally and the continuous increase in the awareness of Internet-borne threats.F-Secure's CEO, Risto Siilasmaa said: "The principal goal of year 2005 was to grow faster than our competitors in the antivirus and intrusion prevention business which was achieved by a 44% growth figure. We have seen that our customers' purchase behaviour is changing dramatically and consumers as well as companies are acquiring data security preferably in the form of a service rather than in other ways. We are the clear leader in the provision of data security in Europe in which over 70 service providers sell exclusively F-Secure based services to their customers. Based on our good success in consumer directed ISP business activities, we have been encouraged to expand our security as a service concept solutions to the small and medium-sized business sectors. This has progressed well in year 2005.The most significant factor in F-Secure's future growth is specifically the security as a service concept. Siilasmaa added that growth will also be achieved through the consistent development of channels throughout Europe's central markets as well as through an increasingly comprehensive product range, reliable services and carefully controlled geographical expansion. Potential business growth can be seen in North America and in Asia. The increasing significance of mobile threats in 2005 is also an area for growth in the data security and service fields. In recent months, certain cooperation models with mobile operators, Nokia and other mobile industry operatives have given the company reason for optimism in the development of the mobile sector. Author:Jaana Sirkiä, Communications Manager Begin | Back
In February, F-Secure announced continued strong growth figures in its interim report stating that the company had been growing faster than its stock exchange listed competitors for ten consecutive quarters.
The company was able to raise its EBIT up to 7,4m euro for the complete year (6,5m in 2004) despite investments and other extensive inputs to bolster the company's standing. The fastest growth was seen in the consumer and the service provider businesses. In the timespan of 2005, F-Secure hired 119 new professionals to meet the challenges of the future market, the majority of whom were located in Finland. Nevertheless, over 64% of the corporation's turnover comes from outside the Nordic countries and international expansion particularly in Asia and North America is a key part of the company's strategy.
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