F-Secure Corporation, Stock exchange release, 20 March 2017, 10.10 a.m. (EET)
As communicated earlier with last year’s results, F-Secure will significantly increase investments in corporate security this year to further ramp up the Company’s growth. To ensure investments are focused on areas critical for supporting growth and for retaining the Company’s competitiveness, F-Secure today initiated employee co-operation negotiations to refocus resourcing.
Samu Konttinen, CEO:
“We are not looking for savings or short-term profits, but instead we are now investing more than ever before in growth. Last year we increased our workforce by 11%, and we will continue active recruitment in our focus areas this year. We want to grow faster by building new competencies in artificial intelligence and big data, and by increasing our focus on sales and marketing. Additionally, we want to accelerate our product creation by simplifying product management and business development and by finding efficiencies in supporting functions. We are confident that these changes will make us more competitive, innovative and productive as we continue to grow our business.”
Negotiations will begin on 21 March, 2017. As a result of the proposed changes we expect a maximum potential headcount reduction of 30. The negotiations are expected to be finalized by the end of April.
The Company’s outlook for 2017 is unchanged:
- Revenue is anticipated to grow from the previous year’s level (2016: EUR 158.3 million).
- Operating profit is anticipated to be EUR 8-12 million (2016: EUR 19.2 million); profitability in the first quarter of 2017 is foreseen to be lowest of the year following typical seasonality, and clearly better towards the year’s end.
Additional info
For press: Sandra Proske, Director, Communications, sandra.proske@f-secure.com, +49 17670036664
For investors: Tapio Pesola, Investor Relations Manager, tapio.pesola@f-secure.com, +358 44 3734693