NortonLifeLock and Avast PLC To Merge In $8.4 Billion Transaction

Antivirus vendor NortonLifeLock this afternoon said it will merge with Britain's Avast PLC in a transaction combining cash and stock in two different options, totaling between $8.1 billion and $8.6 billion in stock. ZDNet reports: That value is roughly equivalent to the value in U.S. dollars of Avast's enterprise value, which takes into account its cash and debt, of 6.5 billion pounds, based on the closing price of Avast stock Tuesday of 5.68 pounds on the London Stock Exchange. The two companies said in the joint press release that their respective boards of directors see an opportunity to "create a new, industry-leading consumer Cyber Safety business, leveraging the established brands, technology and innovation of both groups to deliver substantial benefits to consumers, shareholders, and other stakeholders."

The two companies said the deal will bring together product lines that are broadly complementary, while giving the combined company a user base of over half a billion customers. The deal will broaden the geographic market coverage of the combined company. In addition, the two expect to realize "$280 million of annual gross cost synergies." Under terms of the deal, "Avast shareholders will be entitled to receive a combination of cash consideration and newly issued shares in NortonLifeLock with alternative consideration elections available."

Norton unlock.

[Ostracus]

Ah well. At least he produced good books. [wikipedia.org]

Re: Norton unlock.

[MrBoring]

I liked his old software when I used DOS. I even have a signed letter from him. His books were informative.

Re:

[Major_Disorder]

I kinda feel sorry for Peter Norton. He produced some of the finest DOS utilities out ever, and should be remembered for that. But unfortunately now all he is remembered for is crappy AV software, that mostly comes pre-loaded on your new computer and is removed the first day. Kinda sad really. I hope he was paid really well to sell his name.

Goodbye Avast...

[Puls4r]

You were good for a while. The bloat, lockware, cpu sucking crap that is norton is hated almost universally at my company. It literally turns computers into virtual paperweights. I had to reboot today because it was using over 2 gigs of memory. So.... guess I'll just stick to malwarebytes in the future.

Re:

[iggymanz]

Sounds good, make invading Ruskie ransomware goons go "cyka blyat, someone beat us to it, already pizdets"

Re:

[Eravnrekaree]

how well does defender do in terms of detection quality compared to norton

Re:

[McLoud]

Is there even a decent antivirus product out there any more? I haven't owned a Windows PC personally in years, and the ones I use at work transitioned from TrendOffice to Microsoft Defender years ago. Defender's good for locking up the PC for a few minutes every day at 1pm, which is when it starts scanning the whole system... and I go to lunch.

We use ESET, much more performant than Defender and not very expensive either

Why do we keep allowing these mega mergers?

[rsilvergun]

I mean, I know why, the politicians we vote for are bought off. But why do we keep voting them into office? Yeah, our winner take all system means we're stuck with 2 party, but there's primary elections you know. I've voted in mine for about 10 years now and there's been at least 1 candidate free of corruption every time... who's lost.

Re:

[Eravnrekaree]

And why is it dead considering the malware problem is worse than ever

I haven't used Norton,

[p51d007]

Since Norton Desktop for Windows...circa windows 3.11 When Peter Norton sold out to Symantec, it all went to hell. Haven't touched any of their products since!

Defender

[Malifescent]

Now that Microsoft Windows includes Defender (an anti-virus program) the entire market for AV software is basically moot. Most AV vendors will merge or simply fold.

Re:

[Ostracus]

Except the number of "*-wares" is growing. Is Microsoft going to cover them all? Rather big, and pricey of them.

Re:

[coofercat]

I have to agree. Defender is pretty basic, but it's "good enough" for anyone except a corporate. Corps still like to enforce certain signature databases and make sure everyone's running the latest software. Defender can do this if you spend a load of time on your Group Policy, but the alternative is to spend (seemingly less) on $vendor instead. That way you get a nice UI with multi-coloured graphs and reports to keep the PHBs happy.

Personally, I'd spec Defender every time, but I'm very much in the minority

junkyard

[awwshit]

The junkyard just got bigger.

Not a British company

[LubosD]

Avast is not a British company, it's a Czech company. How hard is it to check your information?