Avast acquires Czech-based antivirus software maker AVG

Antivirus application Avast is acquiring one of it’s biggest rivals, AVG Technologies, for $1.3 billion in cash.The deal is aimed at gaining scale and geographical breadth, Avast said. It also wants to build out its security offerings with an eye on emerging growth opportunities such as in the Internet of Things, as well as on serve existing customers with “more advanced” products.

In a statement made on the Avast company blog, Avast CEO Vincent Steckler said the deal will give Avast access to over 400 million devices that currently use Avast or AVG’s software. This includes 250 million PC and Mac users, and 160 million mobile users. The actual acquirement process will take a few months, said Steckler, but you can expect positive changes for the company in the near future, especially when it comes to their threat detection efficiency.

IoT has been dubbed a security nightmare for consumers, given the accelerating trend for network connectivity to be pushed into all sorts of devices — often by companies with little or no security expertise. But the opening up of this vast new front of potential vulnerabilities is clearly also an opportunity for experienced security players to step in and address.

Organization efficiencies are also expected as a result of the acquisition, so presumably there will be some staff reductions owing to duplicate roles.

On this, a spokeswoman for Avast said: “We haven’t started planning the team integration yet. Over the next months we will be analyzing and planning the organizations, but can’t speak to any potential staff reductions until after that.”

She also confirmed that the AVG brand will not be disappearing, saying the company will use a combination of the two brands owing to associated strengths in different markets.