The bad guys (cybercriminals) are still winning, so two of the larger and better-known good guys (cybersecurity companies), NortonLifeLock and Avast will merge to create a 500+ million user base.
The bad guys have been really, really busy taking advantage of the situation created by Covid-19. The massive increase in attacks has been against everyone — enterprises, small businesses and consumers. Now is the time to join forces and accelerate the transformation of the entire cybersecurity space.
Avast CEO Ondřej Vlček
The deal valued between US8.1-8.6 billion sees the new company (name unknown). NortonLifeLock Chief Executive Officer Vincent Pilette will remain CEO. The company will have dual headquarters in Tempe, Arizona, and Prague, Czech Republic. Avast CEO Ondřej Vlček will become president and join the board.
NortonLifelock (formerly Symantec and Norton) has a larger 40+ million business base. Eleven-year-old Avast works on a “freemium” product and monetises users with more advanced software.
Our talented teams will have better opportunities to innovate and develop enhanced solutions and services, improving capabilities from access to superior data insights. Through our well-established brands, greater geographic diversification and access to a larger global user base, the combined businesses will be poised to access the significant growth opportunity that exists worldwide.
Ondřej Vlček, Chief Executive Officer of Avast
You can read more details here (it is a PDF, so check downloads)
GadgetGuy’s take
Every year we trot off to NortonLIfeLock Australia for a security briefing, and it is more bad news. It is not so much for NortonLifeLock because it is a significant anti-bad guy force, but because the cybercriminals are getting smarter and are winning more often than not.
They use AI supercomputers to look for vulnerabilities and initiate same day threats. The internet is not a safe place.
If there is one thing I have learned in covering cybersecurity, we are fighting a losing battle. The NortonLIfeLock and Avast merger should give both companies economies of scale, and their combined might may just see them edge ahead of the bad guys – if only for a short while. The merger portends more in the future as might becomes right.
