With revenue from its consumer business in decline, Symantec reported earnings on Tuesday that fell short of analyst expectations. Excluding certain expenses, the company reported net income of $282 million, or 22 cents per share, for the quarter ended Dec. 30. Total revenue came to $1.25 billion.

These results, which exclude $166 million in charges, represent a 5% jump in both earnings and revenue from the year-earlier quarter, when the company reported $269 million in net income on $1.19 billion in revenue.

Financial analysts had been expecting earnings of 25 cents per share on revenue of $1.27 billion for the quarter, according to a survey conducted by Thomson Financial.

The cost of the company's Veritas merger, completed in July 2005, had a large effect on Symantec's bottom line. When measured according to generally accepted accounting principles, including the charges, the company reported net income of $91 million, or 8 cents per share.

Revenue from Symantec's consumer business declined 10%, year over year, the company said, while the company's backup business grew 16%, the company said.

Also on Tuesday, Symantec announced plans to repurchase $1 billion in stock over the next year.

With Microsoft poised to enter the consumer anti-virus market, investors and analysts have been expressing concerns about the future of anti-virus companies. Last week Symantec rival McAfee saw its stock drop 14% after it warned that its results for the last three months of 2005 would fall below Wall Street expectations. McAfee is expected to release financial results for this quarter on Feb. 9.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.