Privately-held companies are typically extremely reticent about revealing their figures – which can be a problem for would-be users who would like to do business with them but need to be sure that they will be around to fix any problems that arise. Peter Norton Computing Inc in Santa Monica, California reckons that it has something to shout about and is foregoing the privilege of keeping its numbers under wraps. The personal computer software company says that it did $1.5m pre-tax on sales of $3.3m for the third quarter of 1987, and is projecting sales of $11.3m this year in 1987, a more than doubling of the $4.6m it did last year. This quarter continued our five-year record of growth at a compound annual rate in excess of 120%, says the eponymous chairman and chief executive. Measured by net income before taxes compared to net revenues for the most recently reported quarters, our profitability was 45% higher than Microsoft’s, the number one ranked software company, and fully twice that of eighth-ranked Borland’s, adding that the company’s revenues are more than 25% and profits more than 50% of Borland’s. We chose to look at our figures as compared to Microsoft’s and Borland’s because our product lines are related to and enhance theirs, comments Norton. Why is he blowing his company’s financial trumpet? When anyone purchases and uses software, they enter into a working partnership with the software developer, says Norton. The buyer relies on the developer for future support and product enhancement. Our corporate customers need to know that we are a reliable and worthy partner, with the financial, technical and managerial strength and longevity to serve their needs. Peter Norton Computing develops, markets, and supports microcomputer software utilities, led by The Norton Utilities, a series of data recovery and disk management tools, and The Norton Guides, a pop-up reference system which includes reference tools for program developers. The company plans to introduce The Norton On Line Programmer’s Guide to OS/2 in January of 1988.
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