
19 September 2017
Security software giant Avast Software has acquired rival AVG Technologies. Avast will pay $25 cash for each of AVG’s outstanding ordinary shares in a deal amounting to around $1.3 billion.
The deal will give Avast access to over 400 million “endpoints,” or devices running its and AVG’s software, 160 million of them phones or tablets, the company said Tuesday.
Founded in 1990, AVG has grown to become one of the biggest brands in desktop and mobile security apps. It also offers a range of related services, including AVG Cleaner for Android and Mac.
Avast Software was founded in 1988 in Czechoslovakia and since then has been emerged as one of the leading online security firms. The company is reported to control more than a fifth of the global antivirus software market.
Avast hopes that the deal will make the combined company more efficient, as well as allowing it to take advantage of new growth opportunities such as securing the internet of things.
“This combination is great for our users. We will have over 250 million PC/Mac users enabling us to gather even more threat data to improve the protection to our users,” Avast CEO Vincent Stickler wrote on the company blog.
We are in a rapidly changing industry, and this acquisition gives us the breadth and technological depth to be the security provider of choice for our current and future customers,” said Vincent Steckler, CEO of Avast. “Combining the strengths of two great tech companies both founded in the Czech Republic and with a common culture and mission, will put us in a great position to take advantage of the new opportunities ahead, such as security for the enormous growth in IoT.”
Though the transaction has got the green signal by the boards of both companies, AVG is a publicly traded firm (NYSE), which means its shareholders must also approve the deal. But Avast says it expects the transaction to close between September and October 2016.
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