USA Today says Cybersecurity Stocks Look Hot in 2010: Proofpoint and Other Privately Held Security Vendors to Benefit

Byron Acohido at USA Today has an interesting article out today (see "Cybersecurity Stocks Look Hot in 2010") positing that tech security companies are "poised to become Wall Street darlings this year, thanks in part to Google's tiff with China."

Quoting an analyst at FBR Capital Markets, he says the Google-China row has underscored the already positive outlook for stock price performance of diversified security vendors such as McAfee, Symantec and Check Point and that the security sector is underinvested. As we point out at Proofpoint quite often, IT security (including email security and data loss prevention) solutions simply aren't optional and large enterprises and government organizations can't delay purchases of such solutions.

 Statistics from IDC are also quoted, noting that worldwide spending on IT security rose 6% in 2009 and is expected to grow another 9% in 2010.

The article notes that prospects for privately-held security companies are also looking very positive:

"Meanwhile, the rising incidence — and visibility — of cyberattacks also is boosting prospects for privately held tech-security firms, says Asheem Chandna, a partner at Greylock Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm.

Private firms with strong balance sheets and good growth prospects that might be viewed as viable candidates to float an initial public stock offering include Sophos, Barracuda Networks, Qualys, Proofpoint and Tripwire, Chandna says. He estimates 30 to 50 tech firms could go public this year, including three to five tech-security companies."

Proofpoint's growth has been extremely strong over the past few years as Proofpoint watchers already know. We recently closed our 26th consecutive quarter of record revenue as I noted in a recent blog post (see "Proofpoint News this Week: Another Quarter of Record Proofpoint Revenue, Updated Channel Partner Program).

You can read the full USA Today story here: Cybersecurity Stocks Look Hot in 2010