Secure Computing Corp claims record profitability for its third quarter, boasting earnings of $0.11 per share. The back-from-the- dead company, which last year foundered in the wake of a series of acquisitions, says revenue from products and services continues to grow. Government contract revenues are shrinking but executives say this is part of a planned move towards higher margin products. CEO Jeff Waxman says the best is yet to come. The fourth quarter is historically the company’s strongest. As we reported (CI No 3,511), the company plans to announce availability of its SmartFilter on Microsoft’s Windows NT platform next week. A new version of Secure Computing Firewall for NT, 3.1, is also in the pipeline. Waxman adds that Secure’s new professional services group is going from strength to strength. The group’s Black Hat Briefings, which bring together government and private sector security professionals, hackers and crackers, this year attracted a record number of attendees. We have addressed our product integration challenges, Waxman concluded, we are pleased to be showing double-digit sequential growth. Our turnaround is complete. Fighting words, but the executive party line is not as coherent as it might be. While Waxman boasted that Secure will be making more investments in professional services staff, his CFO Tim McGurran promised analysts: Two to three times the revenue with not a lot of increase in heads. Have cake, will eat it?
