Pre-tax profits at the Irish arm of online security firm, Symantec, which also owns Norton, more than tripled to €57.48m last year, boosted by the transfers of intellectual property (IP) into Ireland.

Cybersecurity giant Symantec has acquired security solutions provider Blue Coat Systems for around $4.65bn (€4.1bn) in cash, a deal that will add to its cyberdefence technology and fill a high-turnover chief executive position.

Nearly one million new cyber threats were released online every day in 2014, with five out of six global companies targeted.