Check Point Pursues More Business Outside Network Security>
Gov Info Security – Michael Novinson
Check Point is aggressively expanding its salesforce and standing up “rockets” focused on three emerging technology areas to land more customer deals outside network security.

The San Carlos, California-based platform security vendor plans to couple a 25% increase in its salesforce with dedicated investment around cloud security, email security and managed detection and response to win new customers and increase wallet share with existing clients, according to founder and CEO Gil Shwed. Shwed says Check Point needs to be “far more aggressive” in pursuing business opportunities.

Check Point announced in February that it would bring developers, sales and marketing personnel closer together in three key areas to become more agile and drive faster investment and growth. The first and largest rocket is for Check Point’s CloudGuard business, which leverages five acquisitions the company has made in recent years and already has hundreds of employees and more than $100 million in sales.

To serve Check Point’s longstanding network security customers, the company in January debuted the Quantum Lightspeed 250 firewall, which delivers performance of 250 gigabits per second. Check Point for the first time used Nvidia’s ASIC chip in its Lightspeed product line, and in February Shwed called Nvidia “the world’s most successful ASIC provider these days.”

Check Point in February announced its intention to increase the size of its salesforce by 25%, and Shwed says Wednesday that the company is already halfway there and expects to hit its headcount target within two or three months. Shwed expects the larger salesforce to drive revenue in the second half of 2022 and give the company the capacity it needs heading into 2023.

Check Point’s revenue jumped to $542.7 million in the quarter that ended March 31, up 6.9% from $507.6 million the year prior. That beat Seeking Alpha’s sales estimate of $535.3 million.

The company’s net income dipped to $169.4 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, down 7.4% from $182.9 million, or $1.33 per diluted share, the year prior. On a non-GAAP basis, net income fell to $203.6 million, or $1.57 per diluted share, down 3.6% from $211.2 million, or $1.54 per diluted share, last year. That edged out Seeking Alpha’s non-GAAP earnings estimate of $1.55 per share.

The company’s software updates and maintenance revenue inched ahead to $225.2 million, up 1.9% from $220.9 million last year. Check Point’s security subscriptions revenue surged to $201.6 million, up 13.6% from $177.4 million the year prior. And the company’s products and licenses revenue climbed to $115.9 million, up 6% from $109.3 million last year.

The Americas accounted for 43% of Check Point’s revenue in the first quarter, while Europe, the Middle East and Africa, or EMEA, delivered 44% of revenue and Asia-Pacific was responsible for the remaining 13% of revenue, says CFO and COO Tal Payne. She says Check Point was pleased by improved performance in the Americas as well as strong double-digit growth in new business bookings across all regions.
Link: https://www.govinfosecurity.com/check-point-pursues-more-business-outside-network-security-a-18977