Symantec’s Net Income Jumps

Symantec Corp., which is buying Veritas Software Corp. for $12.3 billion, said Wednesday that third-quarter profit increased 47% as sales of the Norton antivirus computer program gained.

Net income rose to $163.6 million, or 22 cents a share, in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $111.5 million, or 16 cents, a year earlier. Sales increased 41% to $695.2 million.

Computer owners’ fears of viruses boosted demand for the antivirus program, helping Cupertino, Calif.-based Symantec, the world’s largest maker of such products, to increase consumer sales by 49% in the quarter.

Consumer sales increased to $361 million, Chief Executive John Thompson said during a conference call. They accounted for 52% of total revenue.

Symantec shares fell 5 cents to $24.91 on Nasdaq and lost 51 cents in after-hours trading after the earnings were announced.

Symantec agreed to acquire Veritas on Dec. 16 in a stock swap valued at the time at $13.5 billion.

Veritas, based in Mountain View, Calif., is the second-largest seller of data-storage software.

Excluding some costs, Symantec earned 24 cents in the latest quarter, beating the average 22-cent estimate of 39 analysts surveyed by Thomson First Call. Sales totaled $493.9 million in last year’s third quarter.