Mumbai: Anti-virus solution provider, Avast Software has announced that it has completed the acquisition of AVG Technologies and said that there would not be any immediate changes to its current channel strategies barring the merger of the two networks into a single ecosystem.
Avast Software CEO, Vince Steckler will head the operations of the newly formed company.
With the acquisition, Avast has expanded its SMB business and added AVG’s strong reseller base, enabling Avast to support more and larger organizations. The company has not disclosed its plans for the consolidation of the channel partners though Glenn Taylor, Chief of Staff and GM of SMB, Avast said that partners won’t see any changes to their programs anytime soon.
“While the two channel programs will eventually merge, for now, the programs will continue unchanged”, The Varguy quoted Taylor as saying.
In one of the biggest acquisitions in the end point security industry in 2016, Avast Software announced the acquisition of its biggest rival AVG Technologies for approximately $1.3B. Combining Avast’s and AVG’s users, the new organization will have a network of more than 400 million endpoints, of which 160 million are mobile.
Also Read: How Security Business Consolidation Impacts The Channels
This increase in scale has enabled Avast to create more technically advanced personal security and privacy products. Similarly, this deal has given AVG Technologies a greater exposure in the international market.
With the acquisition, Avast has transformed into a full service security company with the largest Consumer installed base in the world, and with significant Mobile, SMB and Mobile Enterprise businesses. As of the completion of the initial offering period of the tender offer, AVG’s CEO Gary Kovacs will be departing, but will be available on a consulting basis throughout the transition.
The new entity will now have one of the largest network of sensors for threat detection, positioning it well to be the go-to security solution for the Internet of Things (IoT), especially in consumer applications.
“We now have the technical breadth to provide superior protection for our customers. For example, our combined threat labs will have teams dedicated to emerging threats affecting consumers. These include social engineering threats, which are commonly used to target IoT devices, and ransomware, which we are fighting with machine learning technology. We believe we are now better equipped than ever to outsmart those who want to do harm to people online”, Vince Steckler said.