BOSTON, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Security software maker McAfee rejected a claim that several large corporate customers had recently switched over to using products from rival Symantec Corp (SYMC.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

Symantec Chief Financial Officer James Beer told Reuters in an interview late on Wednesday that his company was taking share in the anti-virus software market away from McAfee, which was purchased by chipmaker Intel Corp (INTC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) in February.[ID:nL2E8CPDD4]

Beer said that several large McAfee customers had switched to Symantec during the quarter, but declined to identify them.

McAfee Senior Vice President for Finance and Accounting Edward Hayden told Reuters on Thursday that the claim was false. He added that his company had booked a record amount of business in its December quarter, signed its biggest deal ever and closed more sales over $1 million than it had in any single period.

“We are not aware of any major account that we lost to Symantec during the quarter,” he said.

Intel bought McAfee in a $7.7 billion deal meant to spur growth at the world’s top chipmaker and also help it better protect its products from hackers. Investors are still waiting to see whether that bet will yield results.

McAfee laid off about 3 percent of its workers, or about 250 employees, in December.

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) – Symantec Corp advised customers to stop using its pcAnywhere software for accessing remote PCs, saying they are at increased risk of getting hacked because the blueprints to that software have been stolen.

The announcement is the company’s most direct acknowledgement to date that a 2006 theft of its source code put customers at risk of attack.

PcAnywhere is a software program that is also bundled with some titles in Symantec’s Altiris line of software for managing corporate PCs, Symantec said in a white paper and note to customers released on its website overnight.

The company last week warned customers of the 2006 theft of the source code, or blueprints, to pcAnywhere and several other titles: Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack.

It made the announcement after a hacker who goes by the name YamaTough released the source code to its Norton Utilities PC software and had threatened to publish its widely used anti-virus programs. Authorities have yet to apprehend that hacker.

At the time, company spokesman Cris Paden said that customers of the products faced no threat if they were using the most recent versions of those titles, with one exception: users of pcAnywhere might face “a slightly increased security risk” as a result of the exposure, he said.

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) – Symantec Corp advised customers to stop using its pcAnywhere software for accessing remote PCs, saying they are at increased risk of getting hacked because the blueprints to that software have been stolen.

The announcement is the company’s most direct acknowledgement to date that a 2006 theft of its source code put customers at risk of attack.

PcAnywhere is a software program that is also bundled with some titles in Symantec’s Altiris line of software for managing corporate PCs, Symantec said in a white paper and note to customers released on its website overnight.

The company last week warned customers of the 2006 theft of the source code, or blueprints, to pcAnywhere and several other titles: Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, Norton Internet Security, Norton Utilities and Norton GoBack.

It made the announcement after a hacker who goes by the name YamaTough released the source code to its Norton Utilities PC software and had threatened to publish its widely used anti-virus programs. Authorities have yet to apprehend that hacker.

At the time, company spokesman Cris Paden said that customers of the products faced no threat if they were using the most recent versions of those titles, with one exception: users of pcAnywhere might face “a slightly increased security risk” as a result of the exposure, he said.

By Jim Finkle

(Reuters) – EMC Corp (EMC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), the world’s biggest maker of corporate data storage equipment, on Tuesday forecast that earnings will grow about 9 percent this year as it reported quarterly results ahead of Wall Street forecasts, sending shares up 6 percent.

Long-time Chief Executive Joe Tucci said he will stay in his post through next year to guide the company in a “choppy” global economy, setting up a battle among his lieutenants for control of one of the world’s biggest technology companies.

EMC expects profit, excluding certain items, to rise about 9 percent this year, while revenue will climb about 10 percent, more than double the rate industry experts expect technology spending to grow.

Those forecasts were in line with Wall Street expectations but came as a relief to investors who grew jittery after rival IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) last week reported a drop in fourth-quarter sales of storage equipment and a major earnings disappointment last month by rival Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

Analysts said investors may believe that EMC’s forecast is conservative because it has a history of beating projections it releases each January.

A year ago, the company projected that it would post 2011 revenue of $19.6 billion. It slightly exceeded that target, pulling in $20 billion. In 2010 it posted $17 billion in revenue, coming in $1 billion ahead of its original target.

Jan 24 (Reuters) – EMC Corp (EMC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the world’s biggest maker of corporate data storage equipment, forecast that sales and revenue will grow at a healthy clip this year as it reported quarterly earnings and revenue ahead of Wall Street forecasts, sending shares higher.

The company expect profit, excluding certain items, to rise about 9 percent this year, while revenue will climb about 10 percent, more than double the rate that industry experts expect technology spending to grow.

Those forecasts were in line with Wall Street forecasts but came as a relief to investors after rival IBM (IBM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) last week reported a drop in fourth-quarter sales of storage equipment and a major earnings disappointment last month by rival Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research).

“Sending a 2012 outlook that is just in line with the Street is going to be viewed positively by investors because they have been known to under promise and over deliver,” said Daniel Ives, analyst with FBR Capital Markets.

EMC is benefiting from the continued move to digital documents, music and video, which have boosted the need for its storage products, even in the face of a slowing economy.

At the same time there has been growing demand for so-called cloud computing products — the delivery of computing power, software and storage from centralized data centers that run on technologies introduced over the past few years.

“In a bad economy they are going to do better than most. In a good economy they are going to hit the ball out of the park,” Ives said.

BOSTON, Jan 23 (Reuters) – Software maker VMware Inc (VMW.N: Quote, Profile, Research) reported profit ahead of Wall Street expectations, releasing an outlook ahead of some forecasts that raised hopes that technology spending will grow this year, even as some warn that the economic outlook is grim.

The results surprised some investors who were concerned that VMware might miss forecasts after recent disappointments by rivals Oracle Corp (ORCL.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and Salesforce.com Inc (CRM.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

“VMware beat the numbers and they beat them in a very challenging environment,” said Trip Chowdhry, analyst with Global Equities Research.

A division of storage giant EMC Corp (EMC.N: Quote, Profile, Research), the software maker posted fourth-quarter profit, excluding items, of 62 cents per share, ahead of the 60 cent average forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Quarterly revenue rose 27 percent from a year ago to $1.06 billion, compared with the analyst forecast of $1.05 billion.

VMware, the biggest maker of so-called “virtualization” software that companies use to boost the efficiency of computers, forecast that sales growth will slow this year, with revenue climbing between 19 percent and 22 percent from last year. Revenue had climbed 26 percent in 2011.

“We are cautious about the potential for slower IT spending,” Chief Financial Officer Mark Peek said during a earnings conference call.