Security vendors see sales spike

Rolling in it: Fortinet and Check Point banked a combined $170m in profit during Q4

The security channel has been given a boost by news that vendors Fortinet and Check Point have both posted impressive revenue and profit growth in 2009.

Check Point closed last year by posting fourth-quarter sales of $272.1m (£167.5m), up 25 per cent on 2008. Q4 GAAP net profit rose 27 per cent annually to $109.5m. For the full year, revenue was up 14 per cent to $924.4m, while GAAP net profit grew 10 per cent to $357.5m.

The news gets even better for the vendor's shareholders, as an expansion of its share buy-back programme was announced. Check Point's top brass have approved the repurchase of an additional $250m worth of shares this year.

Chief executive Gil Shwed said: "I'm very proud of the record results we achieved this year, generated across our key metrics, while continuing to invest and advance our security industry leadership.

"This was a great finish to the decade that we closed by exceeding our projections and delivering the best results to date. I'd like to thank our loyal customers, partners and employees for their contribution."

Fortinet saw fourth quarter turnover spike by a fifth year-on-year to $29.4m. Product sales stood at $70.7m, while services contributed $37.4m to the top line. GAAP net profit reached $43.9m in Q4, a rise of more than 400 per cent on 2008.

Full-year revenue rose 19 per cent to $252.1m, while net income reached $60.2m, up from $7.4m in 2008. Fortinet chief executive Ken Xie claimed his firm's Q4 performance represented a successful end to the year.

“The fourth quarter of 2009 was a milestone for Fortinet as we successfully completed our IPO and had a strong finish to the year," he said. "Our focus on innovation and providing an end-to-end IT security portfolio, utilising our custom ASICs, continues to drive Fortinet’s market share gains and new customer acquisitions.”