By Juby Babu
(Reuters) -Gen Digital raised its annual revenue forecast for a second consecutive quarter on Thursday, helped by robust demand for its cybersecurity products and the acquisition of fintech
firm MoneyLion.
A steady stream of high-profile data breaches and online threats has resulted in sustained demand for consumer cybersecurity and digital identity protection services.
"The momentum through the first half was the broad based, and then financial services accelerating is what gave us the confidence to raise the forecast," CEO Vincent Pilette told Reuters.
The company operates on a subscription model, providing a portfolio of services that protect against viruses, malware and identity theft. Its core strategy has shifted from growing its user count to maximizing the value from its existing customer base of over 38 million direct subscribers.
The raised forecast indicates that the company's core subscribers view its products as essential in the face of growing cybersecurity threats.
Gen Digital, which owns Norton and Avast, not only added new customers for its core cyber safety products but also saw an increase in demand from its installed base in the second quarter.
"MoneyLion outgrew the rest of our portfolio, growing 50% quarter over quarter," Pilette said.
It bought the fintech firm in December last year in an all-cash deal valued at about $1 billion to beef up its consumer finance offerings.
Gen has seen an increasing trend of the use of AI to create fake websites and fake environments to scam people. Since January this year the company has blocked more than 140,000 AI-generated scam websites, which is roughly 580 new malicious sites every day on average.
It now sees fiscal 2026 revenue in the range of $4.92 billion to $4.97 billion, from its earlier projection of $4.8 billion to $4.9 billion.
Gen forecast third-quarter revenue between $1.22 billion and $1.24 billion, ahead of estimates of $1.19 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
The company posted revenue of $1.22 billion, up 25%, for the second quarter of fiscal 2026, compared with analysts' average estimate of $1.20 billion.
(Reporting by Akash Sriram in Bengaluru and Juby Babu in Mexico City; Editing by Alan Barona)
