Big money in viruses for Symantec

Profits from the anti-virus business sent Symantec into profit despite disappointing returns from the corporate security market.

Symantec saw sales of its anti-virus products, such as Norton, grow 55 per cent compared to the same quarter last year, with consumer sales up 97 per cent.

However, corporate anti-virus sales were up only 36 per cent, and the company's enterprise security sales rose only 19 per cent to $121m, despite the fact that Symantec was meant to be focusing on that area. Analysts had been looking for growth in the region of 30 per cent.

The results were enough to see Symantec to a profit of $4.8m (£3.3m) or three cents per share for the quarter, compared with a net loss of $27.4m (£18.8m) or 18 cents for the same quarter last year.