F-Secure Antivirus Sales Record High During The Last Quarter of 2003
F-Secure reported revenues of 10.8 million euros for the 4th quarter of 2003 and 39.0m for the full year. The operating result was EUR 1.3 million positive for the fourth quarter. For the full year of 2003 the operating result was EUR 1.5 million positive and Profit Before Tax 4.3 m positive.
The antivirus sales were record high and revenues increased by 40% in Q4 and by 21% in 2003. The good progress was due to positive development of European channels both in consumer and business segments, continuing success with Security as a Service offering through operators, and to the Group’s quality products and leading anti-virus laboratory.
The Security as a Service business (service subscriptions through ISPs) grew by 38% from the third quarter. 4Q in 2003 was the 11th consecutive quarter with approximately 20% quarterly growth in this business area. In the fourth quarter service subscriptions accounted for 16% of anti-virus revenues and annual growth was 151%.
The key Security as a Service partners were Deutsche Telekom in Germany, Wanadoo in France and TeliaSonera in the Nordic countries. In Q4 the Group announced partnerships with Czech Telecom (Czech Republic), TDC Cable (Denmark) and BlueCom (Norway) and a new service with TeliaSonera Finland directed to Small Businesses. The total number of announced Service Provider partnerships is currently 20.
In September 2003 F-Secure launched a new product: F-Secure Anti-Virus Client Security for corporate markets. It received many good reviews and awards in the press and independent product tests, including the Editor’s Choice award from PCPlus Magazine in the UK, Checkmark Levels 1 and 2 in the West Coast Labs virus tests, Network Computing magazine and Cnet.com product reviews. The most important technology certifications were granted for F-Secure Linux products by SuSE and Red Hat.
The Group’s newest product releases have continued to enjoy success in the industry press. F-Secure Internet Security 2004 product received a large amount of highly positive reviews at the end of the year by PC magazines in the UK, Germany and Sweden while F-Secure Anti-Virus Total Suite and F-Secure Radar were appraised by InformationWeek magazine.
New mobile solutions, F-Secure Mobile Filter and the F-Secure Mobile Service Platform, were launched during 2003. F-Secure Mobile Filter is targeted at operators and service providers to filter wireless content to prohibit the transfer of malicious and inappropriate Java applications to mobile phones. The Mobile Filter product was delivered to nine operators on three continents during 2003. F- Secure Mobile Service together with F-Secure anti-virus for handheld devices offers protection against malicious code in mobile phones.
During 2003, the Group announced customer relations with, among others, Saudi Aramco, Microsoft MSN, Alma Media, The Finnish Parliament, New York Metropolitan Transit Authority, Elopak, BASF, Mizuho Bank, Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Honda. Also, the Group has built customer relationships with 90% of all United States Government agencies with its encryption products.
“We are pleased with the progress this far and maintain increased growth as our key objective.We are utilizing our capability to bundle the different aspects of content security (anti-virus, firewall, intrusion prevention, anti-spam, application control, parental control etc.) in a highly automated and easy-to-use way and to combine this with sales and marketing activities to all relevant end user segments,” says Mr. Risto Siilasmaa, President and CEO of F-Secure Corporation. “The management expects improvement in EBIT for the full year 2004 compared to 2003,” he continues.
Financial Reporting
A press and analyst conference will be arranged today, February 12, at 11 am Finnish time at the Group’s Headquarters, Tammasaarenkatu 7, Helsinki. A conference call for international investors and analysts will be arranged at 1530 Finnish time (1430 CET, 1.30 pm UK time). Instructions can be found at http://www.europe.f-secure.com/investor-relations/
The Annual Report will be published on March 16. Annual General Meeting will be held on March 24. Quarterly reports for 2004 will be published on April 27 (Q1), August 3 (Q2) and October 26 (Q3). A Stock Exchange bulletin will be sent at 9 am Finnish time to the Helsinki Exchanges, a press and analyst conference will be arranged at 11 am Finnish time in Helsinki, and an international conference call will be arranged in the afternoon. Full details will be provided later on the Group’s web site.