Posted by Martijn Grooten on Jul 8, 2016
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.
