MessageLabs Completes Record Fiscal Year; Leader in Managed Email Security Services Leverages Growth, Expansion and Distribution Partners to Increase Global Market Share

Business Wire, Oct 27, 2004

NEW YORK -- MessageLabs, the leading provider of managed email security services to businesses, announced another record year of results and achievements for its fiscal year ended 31 July, 2004.

Entering its fifth year of operations, MessageLabs' global client base grew from 5,200 to approximately 8,500 businesses and organizations, an increase of 64% over the prior year, with clients in the United States increasing more than 200% and Asia Pacific clients increasing approximately 60%.

In total, the company added more than 1,000 new clients during the last fiscal quarter. New client additions over the past year include Atari, Computer Sciences Corporation, Keane, Manpower, Olympus Americas Inc., Havas, Saatchi and Saatchi, SIRVA, and Virgin Blue Airlines.

MessageLabs believes that one of the keys to its successful growth has been the strength of its global partner program that now includes more than 600 resellers and associates and contributes over 50% of the company's sales. New global reseller partners include IBM, MCI, Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) and Unisys.

"This was our best fiscal year ever with significantly increased revenues and notable new customer wins and these strong results demonstrate the success we are achieving with our focus on new products and distribution partners," said Ben White, CEO of MessageLabs. "By offering services proven to protect against increasing security threats such as viruses and spam, we are closer to achieving our vision to be recognized as the defining force of messaging security and management services."

MessageLabs is part of UK-based MessageLabs Group (formerly known as Star Technology Group), which reported revenues of GBP 57 million ($104 million) for the year ended 31 July 2004, an increase of 35% over the prior fiscal year.

MessageLabs launched its first multi-million dollar international advertising campaign in February 2004. That same month, the Yankee Group and Gartner, Inc. published industry reports that found MessageLabs to be an "industry leader" and a "visionary" company respectively, based on market share and product offerings.

Additionally, MessageLabs was recognized by a number of industry analysts as a true market leader based on revenues and market share.

In August 2004, IDC reported that MessageLabs had a 22.6% share of the anti-virus managed services market and a 25.1% share of the secure content management managed services market in 2003. IDC estimates the secure content market will reach $4.2 billion in 2004(1) and increase to $7.5 billion in 2008. IDC also recognized that spam has become a major driver for messaging security implementation and that government and industry regulations such as HIPAA, Sarbanes-Oxley, Gramm-Leach-Bliley and various SEC regulations have caused new pressure on corporations to secure electronic communications.

In February 2004, the Yankee Group reported that, "email security reflects many of the core security challenges facing organizations today. Antispam and antivirus solutions are reducing virus infections, improving overall network and desktop security, blocking unwanted e-mail content and meeting regulatory needs." In that report, Yankee listed MessageLabs as a leading vendor of email security services based on a strong product portfolio and the largest services market share, at 11 percent.

"As more companies embrace the benefits of using managed services to stop threats outside their networks, MessageLabs is expected to continue its growth and increase its position of meeting email security needs of enterprises in the years to come," said Phebe Waterfield of Yankee Group.

MessageLabs also scored highly in multiple product reviews, including in PC Magazine, InfoWorld and CRN, and won SC Magazine's Best Security Solution 2004 Award in June.

Experiencing strong growth around the world, MessageLabs now has more than 300 employees in eight offices in the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

MessageLabs' global infrastructure spans four continents and scans an average of 70 million emails a day for enterprise clients. The company offers unparalleled Service Level Agreements for infrastructure availability (100%), email loss and Internet virus protection (100%).

MessageLabs' global support network provides 24x7x365 network monitoring and client support services to all of its business clients, a key benefit in today's computing environment as email security threats hit unprecedented numbers.

About MessageLabs

MessageLabs is the leading provider of managed email security services to businesses based on market share, according to a Yankee Group Security Solutions & Services, February 2004 report. The company offers industry-leading managed Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, Image Control and Content Control services to more than 9,000 businesses around the world to combat email threats before they reach corporate networks and without the need for additional hardware or software. Powered by a global network of data centers spanning four continents, MessageLabs scans tens of millions of emails each day on behalf of clients such as The British Government, The Bank of New York, Bertelsmann, CSC, Diageo, Orange, Random House, SC Johnson and StorageTek. The service is also available through more than 600 channel partners, including BT, Cable & Wireless, CSC, IBM, MCI and Unisys. For more information on MessageLabs, please visit www.messagelabs.com.