Operating income grew 18% to $103.74m, while diluted EPS grew 5% to $0.41. It also repurchased approximately 3.4 million shares for $66.7m.

During the quarter, the company agreed to acquire Nokia’s security appliance business for an undisclosed sum to expand its network security appliance line.

The Israel-based company said product and license revenue grew marginally to $94.04m, while revenue from software updates, maintenance, and services grew 9% to $123.52m.

For fiscal 2008, the company reported a 15% increase in net income to $323.99m compared to net income of $281.06 a year ago, on revenue up 11% at $808.49m. Operating income increased 28% to $356.5m, while diluted EPS increased 20% to $1.50.

Gil Shwed, chairman and chief executive at Check Point, said: Our financial results for the year continued to underscore the success of our Total Security strategy. The investments we have made in emerging markets began to pay off as we realized over 20% growth in Asia and Eastern Europe and over 40% growth in Latin America and the Middle East. We continued to demonstrate our operational discipline by completing 2008 with record operating margins (non-GAAP) of 53% for the full year and 55% in the fourth quarter.