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1 October 2001

Fighting viruses, making profits: Sophos grows at twice the industry average

Sophos, a world leader in corporate anti-virus protection, today announced financial results for the year ended 31st March 2001.

Highlights:

* Turnover increased 54% to £22.6 million, from £14.7 million the previous year
* Profit before tax grew 65% to £7.8 million (2000: £4.7 million)

Recent research from IDC¹ suggests that the anti-virus industry average growth rate was 24% in 1999-2000, yet the latest results from Sophos show more than double this growth rate, which indicates significant gains in market share from competitors.

For the forthcoming year, Sophos plans to open sales offices in Singapore and Milan - adding to its current subsidiaries in the USA, Australia, France, Germany and Japan. Construction has begun on an additional high-security research and development centre, totalling over 150,000 square feet at Sophos's HQ in Abingdon, UK. 160 new jobs will be created over the next year by these expansions.

"Sophos's tight focus on developing corporate anti-virus software, backed up with round-the-clock customer support, has delivered substantial growth over the last year," said Peter Lammer, co-founder and joint CEO of Sophos Anti-Virus. "By concentrating on our core competencies, we fully expect this growth to continue in the future."

"Sophos's excellent growth points out the vitality of the anti-virus market and the success of a strategy that focuses singularly on speedy and comprehensive responses to customer needs," said Chris Christiansen, vice president of IDC's Internet infrastructure and security software programme.

Sophos also strengthened its management team during 2000-2001; Jan Hruska, formerly technical director, and Peter Lammer, formerly managing director, became joint chief executive officers. David Hughes, formerly vice president of strategy for the Lotus Development division of the IBM Corporation, became president of Sophos's US subsidiary, whilst Rachel Lane was appointed as head of Human Resources and Malcolm Howe joined as Head of Global IT.

¹ Source: IDC Research's "Worldwide Anti-virus Software Market Forecast and Analysis, 2001-2005"

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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