Symantec Corp president and chief executive Gordon Eubanks put the company’s third quarter modest profits and turnover growth down to pent-up demand for upgraded products released this quarter and late last quarter, by which he presumably meant a lack of sales until very late on so we should expect to see a bumper fourth quarter. The Cupertino, California-based development tools and anti-virus company turned in third quarter profits of $13.9m, against losses last time of $36.8m, which included a $37.2m restructuring hit for the Delrina acquisition – now sold on – on revenues that rose 12% to $124.1m. The company has improved its high gross margins by cutting research and development and operating expenses, and launched products including Visual Cafe Pro and Visual Page Java development tools, ACT! 3.0 and WinFax Pro 7.5 in the communications arenas and Norton Internet Email gateway and CrashGuard utilities. Symantec also said its performance over the Christmas season had improved in Europe. Net profits for the nine months to December 31 were $17.8m, after a $9.8m restructuring hit, against $47.7m losses the previous year, which included the same $37.2m charge, on turnover up 4% to $342.5m.
