ISP helps F-Secure profits grow

According to the recent release of its second quarter financials, F-Secure claims one of the largest part of the company’s 16 percent overall revenue growth in Q2 came through the solid growth of the ISP business, which grew by 35 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

During Q2 F-Secure also took the first steps to broaden its service offering for ISP’s from the traditional security services by introducing an online back-up service. F-Secure’s total quarterly revenue was $44.5 million in Q2, a new all-time high, said Kimmo Alkio, president and CEO of F-Secure Corporation.

At the same time profitability was healthy with an ‘earnings before interest and tax’ of $7.7 million, which was 17 percent of the vendor’s revenues. The company also paid out a dividend of 10.9m€ (AUS$17.7m) (7 eurocents per share) during Q2, said Alkio.

He claimed F-Secure’s financial position continues strong with more than $135.8 million in liquid assets at the end of Q2. F-Secure’s business through traditional channels (e.g. resellers) grew by 5 percent during Q2 compared to the previous year.

“With the good growth of our strategic ISP business continuing, it is great to see improvements in our traditional channel business as well”, said Alkio. “The company’s growth is also backed up by investments in resources: with a total of 668 employees worldwide the company now has 128 more professionals driving innovation, customer satisfaction and growth than a year ago.”

He claimed F-Secure expects to continue growing during the second half of 2008, with full year revenues for 2008 reaching between $180 million – $196 million.