There was interesting news in the anti-virus world yesterday, as
Avast
announced the acquisition of its competitor
AVG
.
Both companies were founded in the Czech Republic and both are best known for their free home anti-virus products. Indeed, it is not uncommon for people to confuse the two companies. Writing on his company’s blog,
Avast
CEO Vincent Stecker
writes
:
Shortly after I started as CEO almost 8 years ago, I remember giving a presentation to a large audience about
Avast
. About an hour later, a gentleman walked up to me and complimented me on how good the presentation was and how he enjoyed hearing about
AVG
.
If it were ever true, the time when running an anti-virus product alone provided sufficient protection against online threats is long behind us, especially in the context of advanced and targeted attacks. Apart from improving the proactive detection capabilities of their products, many anti-virus vendors have added products and services to their portfolios.
Unsurprisingly, these changes in the threat landscape, combined with the saturated anti-virus market, have led to a number of acquisitions, and this is unlikely been the last.
Though
AVG
may be best known for its free product, acquiring the company certainly won’t be free:
Avast
will pay US$1.3 billion for it. At time of writing, the deal is still subject to regulators ticking the box to say they agree with all the terms and conditions.
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