Large security software companies have shown remarkable growth during the economic crisis. While corporations worldwide were cutting their IT budgets, security software spending was spared. In 2008, the weighted average revenue growth was 16% for the major security software firms.
The security software market is worth 16 billion USD, according to the Top 100 Research Foundation. The Top 12 security software companies account for over 10.5 billion USD, about two third of the total market. The market is expected to grow 12% this year and 17% in 2010 to 21 billion USD. The table displays the Top 12 Security Software Companies, ranked by software revenues from 2008 in millions of US dollars.
The World's Largest Security Software Companies | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Company | Country | Software revenues | Growth rate |
| 1. | Symantec | USA | 5,692 | 8% |
| 2. | Trend Micro | Japan | 985 | 16% |
| 3. | McAfee | USA | 795 | 25% |
| 4. | Check Point | Israel | 691 | 10% |
| 5. | EMC | USA | 462 | 5% |
| 6. | CA | USA | 450* | N/A |
| 7. | Kaspersky | Russia | 360 | 177% |
| 8. | Websense | USA | 296 | 40% |
| 9. | Verint | USA | 260* | N/A |
| 10. | AVG | Czech Rep. | 250 | 213% |
| 11. | Sophos | UK | 163 | 45% |
| 12. | Panda Security | Spain | 111 | 37% |
| * Estimate, insufficient data | ||||
Several acquisitions have taken place last year. McAfee bought Secure Computing, Sophos took over the German Utimaco and Symantec acquired MessageLabs. More consolidation is likely, as the sector grows rich and large software companies buy smaller competitors for market share and additional growth potential. Security software is a very international sector. Though US companies are leading, they are not as dominant as they are in the rest of the software industry. The fastest growth takes place outside the US. Various successful antivirus companies come from Eastern Europe, with Russian Kaspersky as a frontrunner. AVG, the fastest growing company in the list, has its roots in the Czech Republic. Among the runners-up, just below the Top 12, are Softwin from Romania (the maker of BitDefender), ESET from Slovakia and Czech ALWIL Software (the maker of Avast). The antivirus market is growing substantially faster than the firewall- and intrusion detection market, driven by volume contracts with PC makers and increasing public awareness of virus threats.