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Avast Software is acquiring rival antivirus solution firm AVG Technologies for US$1.3 billion

By Wong Chung Wee - on 8 Jul 2016, 11:44am

Avast Software is acquiring rival antivirus solution firm AVG Technologies for US$1.3 billion

(Image source: Avast Software)

Czech Republic-based Avast Software has announced its plans to acquire AVG Technologies to the tune of US$1.3 billion in cash. Under an agreement signed with AVG, Avast Software will pay US$25 per share and purchase all shares of AVG’s stock. Coincidentally, both companies were founded in the old Czech Republic, and both companies have grown to be security giants in their own rights.Between the two security software companies, each of them have roughly the same user base, about 200 million.

(Image source: AVG Technologies)

According to Avast CEO Vincent Steckler, the purchase of AVG will allow Avast to quickly gather more threat data to improve protection to their users. The combined user base of 160 million for mobile security solutions will also help to improve protection. At the same time, it will provide the necessary momentum in Avast’s push into the Internet of Things market segment. This synergy generated will also benefit its SMB security solutions. It isn’t specified, in the official press releases from both companies, whether the AVG brand name will be retained; however, we feel that it’s probably more feasible to keep both brand names separate in order to differentiate their associations with different market segments. This acquisition is expected to be finalized sometime between mid-September to mid-October this year, depending on the timing of regulatory review.

(Source: Avast (1), (2) via The Wall Street Journal)

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