We're Already in the Post-PC Era

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Josh Pickus, shares of Support.com have more than doubled so far in 2012. What's driving the stock?

Joshua Pickus: What's driving the stock is that we crossed the line into profitability. The company has made a number of years of investments but became profitable in a big way in the third quarter. That's lead to a lot of appreciation. We've been working on the business, which is really helping leading brands deliver technology service programs to consumers and small businesses.

Think of it as geek squad done for a bunch of other big brands that would like to bring that to market. We've kind of perfected it now, and it's really enabling the business to grow and generate good profits and cash flow.

Gregg Greenberg:

Well, it certainly grew in the third quarter. Revenue was up about 50 percent. What are your expectations for the fourth quarter as well as 2013 because it's a pretty high bar you've raised?

Joshua Pickus:

Yes, we're optimistic about the future. Our guidance for the fourth quarter is for revenue to be up and for us to do at least as well and possibly better in terms of profits. 2013 we're looking at right now, but we see a lot of opportunity out there in the marketplace.

Gregg Greenberg:

You see a lot of opportunity and you have a lot of cash to take advantage of those opportunities, $52 million in cash, no debt. Do you plan to buy some of those opportunities, because growth by acquisition is sometimes is a dangerous proposition?

Joshua Pickus:

We have a very disciplined view of acquisitions. We've done three of them. They've been relatively small. We put them through a very disciplined process because as you know, a lot of M&A comes to no good. We do think that in the right situation, we could use some of the cash for that but only after a very disciplined review to make sure it'll actually deliver for shareholders.

Gregg Greenberg:

And you've recently launched a super anti-spyware product. What makes it so super?

Joshua Pickus:

Yeah. Super anti-spyware is a super product really because what it does is help people remove spy ware, adware, a bunch of evil things that end up on your devices and it does it in a way that really compliments your existing protection. A lot of people run one anti-virus software thinking it will protect against anything, with super anti spy ware we provide a second line of defense that really ensures your machine is safe.

Gregg Greenberg:

Finally, how does the decline in the PC market affect support.com?

Joshua Pickus:

You know, we're already in the post PC era. What's happened with us is that we moved to a situation where a lot of our support is focused on the network. It can be the home network for a consumer or the small business network for a small business. The PC is really one of the end points on that network but so are tablets, smart phones, servers, etcetera. We're already seeing that that's the dominant share of the work we're doing. So we don't really have concerns about the changes in the PC market.