The VAR Guy

We’re not out of the woods yet, folks. Recession whispers continue. But positive financial news from multiple tech companies — Avnet, Symantec, Sybase and Xerox — lifted The VAR Guy’s spirits today. Alas, he doesn’t own any shares in the companies. But he always welcomes bullish statements from high-tech leaders. Here’s a sampling of what each company had to say.

Today’s scorecard:

• Avnet, the multi-talented tech distributor, delivered record Q2 earnings and strong revenue growth. Avnet hopes to maintain that momentum through new efforts, including a Software as a Service initiative.
• Symantec, which has taken a beating from many financial skeptics ever since the Veritas acquisition in mid-2005, delivered 25 percent earnings growth. Shares jumped on the news and The Motley Fool — one of The VAR Guy’s favorite reads — said Symantec deserves a little love right now. Watch for Symantec to finally unveil its Software-as-a-Service platform — dubbed Symantec Protection Network — in the next few weeks.
• Sybase apparently has re-invented itself and is doing just fine working in the shadows of database giants like Oracle, IBM and Microsoft. In fact, Sybase delivered its best quarter and year in company history.
• Xerox is printing money again, and lifted its quarterly profits almost 80 percent. Keep a close eye on the company’s Hardware-as-a-Service strategy, where customers pay a flat monthly fee for Xerox partners to manage all of their printing infrastructure.

At this point, some key themes should be clear to you: Just about every tech company out their hopes to grow earnings this year by bolstering its SaaS or managed services strategy.