Security news
Security news1 October 2002
Sophos grows at more than twice market rate
Number one European anti-virus developer sees 25% profit growth in 2001/2
Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, today announced financial results for the year ended 31st March 2002.
Highlights:
- Turnover increased 40% to £31.6 million, from £22.6 million the previous year
- Profit before tax grew 25% to £9.8 million (2001: £7.8 million)
In addition, in the Australia and New Zealand operation:
- Turnover increased by 29% to A$3.4 million, from A$2.6 million the previous year
Analyst group IDC expects the anti-virus market as a whole to grow at 15.3% annually between 2001 and 2006*. This year, Sophos's global turnover grew at 40% - more than twice this rate. This demonstrates the company's continued success in capturing market share in the highly competitive corporate anti-virus market.
Mr Stuart Palmer, managing director of Sophos Anti-Virus Australia and New Zealand, said, "In the past twelve months, our local operation increased revenues at almost double the market rate; moved into a larger regional head office with room for further growth; and substantially strengthened the channel. The region's growth is based on the strength of the product and the quality of our support for customers and partners.
"The role of the channel is also central to Sophos's success and a recent launch at a new channel sales strategy will help us to grow even more through 2003."
The company has now enjoyed several consecutive years of impressive yet steady growth. Since 1994 Sophos has experienced compound annual turnover growth of 44% and compound pre-tax profits growth of 47%.
Contributing to this year's global growth was new revenue resulting from Sophos's further expansion into international territories. In November 2001, Sophos opened a new office in Singapore, enabling the company to better target the Asia Pacific market. Sophos strengthened its European presence with the opening of a Milan-based Italian subsidiary in 2002.
In May 2002, Sophos announced that TA Associates had bought a minority stake in the company for US$60 million. As part of the investment two TA senior executives have been appointed as non-executive directors of Sophos, one to the board of Sophos Plc and the other to the board of Sophos Americas. This second appointment will specifically help drive Sophos's US market activities.
Sophos Australia and New Zealand has won a number of major new customer wins in the past year including Monash University.
The company's achievements were recognised with a number of prestigious awards. In the last year, Sophos has been named 'Company of the Year' at the CBI/Real Business Growing Business Awards and received two Queen's Awards for Enterprise in the categories of 'Innovation' and 'International Trade'. Sophos's anti-virus products have received accolades and certifications from independent testing bodies such as ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs, AV-Test.Org and Virus Bulletin as well as magazines including Australian Reseller News, InfoWorld, Federal Computer Week, Network News and Le Monde Informatique.
"Our determination to remain tightly focused on the corporate anti-virus market and continue our aggressive global expansion strategy has paid off again this year," said Dr Jan Hruska, co-founder and joint CEO of Sophos Anti-Virus. "Our Queen's Award for International Trade is recognition that we are making major in-roads into overseas markets. This international success, together with our strong position in the UK market, provides a firm foothold as we continue to aggressively target the market share of our larger competitors."
*IDC Bulletin 27864 'Antivirus Software 2002: A Segmentation of the Market'.
About Sophos
Sophos enables enterprises all over the world to secure and control their IT infrastructure. Sophos's network access control, endpoint, web and email solutions simplify security to provide integrated defenses against malware, spyware, intrusions, unwanted applications, spam, policy abuse, data leakage and compliance drift. With over 20 years of experience, Sophos protects over 100 million users in nearly 150 countries with its reliably engineered security solutions and services. Recognized for its high level of customer satisfaction and powerful yet easy-to-use solutions, Sophos has received many industry awards, as well as positive reviews and certifications.
Sophos is headquartered in Boston, US and Oxford, UK. More information is available at www.sophos.com
