NortonLifeLock sniffs around Avast, announces 'advanced discussions' for acquisition
- Reference: 1626345972
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/15/nortonlifelock_and_avast_confirm_merger_negotiations/
- Source link:
"A combination of NortonLifeLock and Avast would bring together two companies with aligned visions, highly complementary business profiles and a joint commitment to innovation that helps protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely," a NortonLifeLock spokesperson claimed in a message to investors.
"We would draw on the best of both companies to ensure that the combination would benefit our customers, reward our employees and maximise long term value for all shareholders."
[1]
Founded in 1982 by Gary Hendrix off the back of a grant from the National Science Foundation, Symantec's start was in artificial intelligence and productivity products. In 1990 the company acquired Peter Norton Computing, taking on the latter's Norton-branded DOS utilities - and, of note, its security and antivirus products, which would eventually become the company's primary focus.
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The consumer wing of Symantec rebranded to NortonLifeLock, inspired by its 2016 acquisition of identity theft firm LifeLock, after the enterprise software element was [4]sold to Broadcom for $10.7bn in 2019 . Today, it still specialises in security products aimed at the consumer - which have sometimes [5]mined cryptocurrencies and [6]auto-renewed when they perhaps shouldn't.
Consumer security is precisely where Czech rival Avast has its sights set. Founded in 1988 by Eduard Kučera and Pavel Baudiš as Alwil and focusing on antivirus from the get-go - with Baudiš responsible for developing the first program to remove the Vienna virus from infected systems - the company has its own-brand security software and operates AVG Technologies, Piriform, and HMA as subsidiaries.
[7]Norton dodges UK courts after telling Brit watchdog it will be nicer to consumers
[8]FireEye sold to McAfee's new owners for $1.2bn as Mandiant split into standalone firm again
[9]Symantec shares up as private equity suitors sniff consumer tentacle
[10]When the chips are down, buy a software biz: Broadcom snaffles Symantec for $10.7bn
The company's history is not untouched by controversy, however: its Avast- and AVG-branded browser extensions were [11]dropped after they were found to be selling users' browsing histories to a third party, which the company [12]promised to stop - only for an update to open a [13]man-in-the-middle vulnerability in the Avast AntiTrack privacy tool.
NortonLifeLock [14]announced it was investigating making a cash and share offer for the entirety of Avast and subsidiaries, but that it "reserves the right to vary the form and/or mix of the consideration."
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The company was also keen to point out that has not yet made a firm offer, nor even announced "a firm intention to make an offer," and that "there can be no certainty that any firm offer for Avast will be made nor as to the terms on which any firm offer might be made."
Regulation now gives the company 28 days to either announce such a firm intention or to drop the whole plan. "A further announcement will be made," the company stated, "as appropriate."
"If it does go through, this will be one of the most significant consumer security deals in recent history," opined Indraneel Arampatta, of tech-sector analyst Megabuyte, on the possible merger. "It seems as the old sleeping giants have come alive in the last few years, now mobilising and consolidating in the face of greater competitive threats from specialist consumer security upstarts and scale-ups (especially in the VPN world) and the enterprise security world.
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"One unique angle to this acquisition is Avast’s wildly successful freemium model: Avast has around 400 million users, most of which are still on the free product, providing a rich base to potentially convert into paying customers. In a market where churn is particularly high, and consumers are incredibly price sensitive, this is a rather valuable differentiator.
"For Norton, Avast also provides a strong boost outside of the US: while Norton does have an international model, the US is the core and where the brand is strongest, with Europe, Asia, and Africa dominated by regional players."
Avast, whose share price rose nearly 13 per cent on the news, confirmed that it was in talks with NortonLifeLock, but reiterated the point that "there can be no certainty as to whether any transaction will take place" between the two. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YPBbne0exFSQWpc5pHCxJAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPBbne0exFSQWpc5pHCxJAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YPBbne0exFSQWpc5pHCxJAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2019/08/09/broadcom_buys_symantec_for_10bn/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+co%252FTpyQ+%2528The+Register%2529
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/03/norton_crypto/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/norton_cma/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/14/norton_cma/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/06/03/fireeye_sold_stg_1_2bn_dollars_mandiant/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2019/09/09/symantec_consumer_biz_sale/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2019/08/09/broadcom_buys_symantec_for_10bn/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2019/12/04/avast_avg_mozilla_takedown/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/30/avast_to_close_jumpshot/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2020/03/10/avast_mitm_antitrack_bug/
[14] https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210714005935/en/NortonLifeLock-Inc.-Possible-Combination-with-Avast-PLC-%E2%80%9CAvast%E2%80%9D-or-the-%E2%80%9CCompany%E2%80%9D
[15] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YPBbne0exFSQWpc5pHCxJAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_security/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YPBbne0exFSQWpc5pHCxJAAAAFI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
P. Norton portrait
"In 1990 the company acquired Peter Norton Computing, taking on the latter's Norton-branded DOS utilities - and, of note, its security and antivirus products, which would eventually become the company's primary focus."
It also acquired that famous P. Norton portrait that was on *every* single Norton security boxes, back then.
No-one knew who that dude was. Weird marketing ....
So that means that AVG free will disappear, or become full of adds, which means i will no longer use it.
Why would AVG do that because Norton buy Avast?
Why does Red Hat screw up CentOS because IBM bought them?
Because when you own, you rule. Norton probably consider their business model is better than Avast which is why they can buy them. And removing a free competitor may look good on the boardroom paper. AVG is owned by Avast and hence soon by Norton?
Your non-use of AVG Free is no loss to Norton. People who think they must have something other than Defender may switch to a paid product. That's good news for the heirs of Peter.
AVG Free was useful to Avast as a loss leader for a lesser known brand and, hopefully, lead to upgrades to a paid version. That would be history.
Avast bloat
But didn't that already happen when Avast bloated it up with more nagware?
Long gone is the nice and nifty free AVG product.
But it is also a bit worrying that we have to acknowledge that Win10 is not XP when it comes to getting infected all the time. They just don't write viruses like they used to.
"highly complementary business profiles"
Yes, let's absolutely merge together all anti-virus companies.
After all, they all use the same principle : compare binary code against signatures, which has proved time and time again to not be enough.
Then we can start talks about monopoly, and how we need to break them up again.
The world goes round and round . . .
A match made in HELL
Both Norton and a "confidential collaberator" of Avast have been tricking user's into installing mobile versions of their software through scareware pop-under ads for several years.
I have reported the infected sites and even the source code used by the "advertisers" to both Norton and Avast but I was ignored.
And as the author has mentioned. Avast has become more of a threat to user's security and privacy than the malware they claim to protect against.
A pox on both their houses.
Aligned Visions
I'm glad this always works in the tech industry.