Avast acquires AVG for $1.3 billion

[Trixanity]

That came out of nowhere but Avast apparently has the money to buy AVG and will pay $1.3 billion for it.

Quote

Two of the largest antivirus companies in the world, AVG and Avast, will soon become one. Avast has announced it will acquire AVG for $1.3 billion ($25 per share) and it's currently waiting on AVG's shareholder approval.

There is no statement on how it will affect AVG or Avast users. There is no statement on what the plan is going forward except that the combined user numbers will provide more threat data and that they will provide better support for businesses. I'd consider that fairly vague.

 

The CEO of Avast, Vincent Steckler, had this to say:

Quote

We will have over 250 million PC/Mac users enabling us to gather even more threat data to improve the protection to our users. In mobile, our combined 160 million mobile users will be used to improve protection as well as to provide an important stepping stone into the Internet of things. Additionally, we will be gaining some exciting mobile technology designed to protect families on line. In SMB, we will be better able to support our business users with a larger geographic footprint, better technical support, and the best technologies from our two companies.

Source: http://www.nextpowerup.com/news/28935/avast-acquiring-avg-for-usd-1-3-billion/

[VerticalDiscussions]

Seems pretty good. I love Avast and theyr interface, so i guess it can only bring improvements overhaul. Would have been cooler if Avast bought Bitdefender or Kaspersky, but oh well aha!

[zMeul]

1 hour ago, Trixanity said:

Avast apparently has the money to buy AVG

in case you didn't knew, Avast has the biggest market share in AV industry

^ data as of January 2015: https://www.opswat.com/resources/reports/antivirus-and-compromised-device-january-2015#antivirus-vendor-market-share

[Bouzoo]

3 minutes ago, zMeul said:

in case you didn't knew, Avast has the biggest market share in AV industry

^ data as of January 2015: https://www.opswat.com/resources/reports/antivirus-and-compromised-device-january-2015#antivirus-vendor-market-share

MS AV is 2nd. No wonder people have so much problems with infected pcs. 

[AlTech]

2 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

MS AV is 2nd. No wonder people have so much problems with infected pcs. 

Have you used Windows Defender? No you haven't. On many PCs the OEMs disable Windows Defender and put McAfee or some stupid shit like that.

[Briggsy]

I'm surprised to see McAfee that high up. must be a lot of prebuilt machines and laptops still out there running that junk.

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, Briggsy said:

I'm surprised to see McAfee that high up. must be a lot of prebuilt machines and laptops still out there running that junk.

Yeah my friend's new Lenovo came with McAfee.

[Trixanity]

If I recall, Avast is selling your data like AVG. Guess it's a match made in heaven

 

I use Avira for my free needs currently (they probably sell my data secretly).

 

With that being said: what's the attraction with Avast? I don't recall them getting good scores in tests or anything else to suggest it being top dog.

[AlTech]

4 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

If I recall, Avast is selling your data like AVG. Guess it's a match made in heaven

 

I use Avira for my free needs currently (they probably sell my data secretly).

 

With that being said: what's the attraction with Avast? I don't recall them getting good scores in tests or anything else to suggest it being top dog.

These appear to be their USPs (Unique Selling Points).

 

[NumLock21]

Avast boot scan, best feature ever.

[Bsmith]

18 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Have you used Windows Defender? No you haven't. On many PCs the OEMs disable Windows Defender and put McAfee or some stupid shit like that.

gotta agree with this one, windows defender+ MBAM are able to keep everything up an running here smoothly.

[Bouzoo]

56 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Have you used Windows Defender? No you haven't. On many PCs the OEMs disable Windows Defender and put McAfee or some stupid shit like that.

And how do you know what I've used? Exactly, you don't. I don't care how much you love MS, their AV is absolutely nothing special and I've seen more than enough problems with people that only used their AV in almost all tech jobs I've had. And of all things you used McAfee to compare it with. It' a base protection, just so you have something.

Tell me again how good it is. 

https://www.av-test.org/en/antivirus/home-windows/

[ShadowCaptain]

I wish Avast would buy ME for 1.3 billion 

[79wjd]

1 minute ago, ShadowCaptain said:

I wish Avast would buy ME for 1.3 billion 

As part of the deal you would lose all rights to yourself. You wouldn't be allowed to think or act without being specifically told what to think, do, or say first. Oh, and you may have to cut off a leg and an arm. 

[ShadowCaptain]

2 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

As part of the deal you would lose all rights to yourself. You wouldn't be allowed to think or act without being specifically told what to think, do, or say first. Oh, and you may have to cut off a leg and an arm. 

but id have $1.3 billion dollars, and I am pretty sure I could escape to Mexico

[manikyath]

i severely dislike both of them.

 

i've dealt with the worst year of norton, and the worst year of bullguard, and pushed trough the shitshow.

for reasons i cant remember, both AVG and avast were removed off all my systems, because they did something that pissed me off enough to boot up 10 computers and press uninstall.

 

i dont recall which one of the two, but one tried to install adware along with one of its updates.

[oo2k15]

I was doing avast scan the other day and it was telling me to uninstall AVG. Now they are buying AVG pretty ironic.

[FunkyFeatures]

This is semi-exciting. I have tried both AVG and Avast, now that they are slammed together, maybe they can create an even better antivirus? I already know they are both way up there in terms of free vs paid software, it had like 97% detection with very few false positives?

[NumLock21]

 

13 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i severely dislike both of them.

 

i've dealt with the worst year of norton, and the worst year of bullguard, and pushed trough the shitshow.

for reasons i cant remember, both AVG and avast were removed off all my systems, because they did something that pissed me off enough to boot up 10 computers and press uninstall.

 

i dont recall which one of the two, but one tried to install adware along with one of its updates.

That would be AVG with it's internet search tool or something. And their new Zen interface sucks.

[Bouzoo]

9 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i severely dislike both of them.

 

i've dealt with the worst year of norton, and the worst year of bullguard, and pushed trough the shitshow.

for reasons i cant remember, both AVG and avast were removed off all my systems, because they did something that pissed me off enough to boot up 10 computers and press uninstall.

 

i dont recall which one of the two, but one tried to install adware along with one of its updates.

Back in the day, Ad-Aware was good. It was reliable enough, slow, really slow, but it got the job done. Haven't used it in years, since much better solutions were available and it was quite annoying how slow it became.

You mention Norton, I will never forget when a CD, a brand new CD that I just bought, broke completely on "one end". I put it in my PC because I was curious, and Norton went all crazy how the CD had malicious stuff on it. It was bought for burning purposes, never used before. It was at that moment I knew Norton had to go away. That thing would erase its mother if it could. 

[manikyath]

8 minutes ago, NumLock21 said:

 

That would be AVG with it's internet search tool or something. And their new Zen interface sucks.

iirc it was like actual adware as in ads popping up on the desktop kind of deal

5 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Back in the day, Ad-Aware was good. It was reliable enough, slow, really slow, but it got the job done. Haven't used it in years, since much better solutions were available and it was quite annoying how slow it became.

You mention Norton, I will never forget when a CD, a brand new CD that I just bought, broke completely on "one end". I put it in my PC because I was curious, and Norton went all crazy how the CD had malicious stuff on it. It was bought for burning purposes, never used before. It was at that moment I knew Norton had to go away. That thing would erase its mother if it could. 

"adware" AKA intrustive advertisements everywhere

 

also, i may be that one person that -aside from slugishness and the occasional false positive that was easily whitelisted- never really had issues with norton.

 

bullguard on the other hand.. was an absolute shitshow in 2013

[Deletist_Jerk]

Despite the meager 2.1% market share, I think Spybot S&D is the most comprehensive and complete anti-malware software. 

[dalekphalm]

1 hour ago, oo2k15 said:

I was doing avast scan the other day and it was telling me to uninstall AVG. Now they are buying AVG pretty ironic.

Erm well one thing you were doing wrong is having 2x active AV installed at the same time That can cause all kinds of problems.

 

On topic: What do I think of this? I have mixed feelings. On one hand, I used to love Avast, and as mentioned above, Boot Scan was the most amazing feature I've ever seen in an AV - more AV should adopt that kind of feature. On the other hand, Avast's golden age was back in the Windows XP days, before free AV's started to get really aggressive with "Upgrade to Premium!" and a bunch of features that are often more annoying then useful. Furthermore, AVG, in my opinion, hasn't been good in ages. The interface sucks and the program is way too annoying and needy.

 

But perhaps Avast can bring AVG (and themselves) back to their past glory. A merger of the two might create the best AV known to man (Not holding my breath on that one).

 

AVG's stock shot up like crazy this morning after the announcement. Yesterday, it was trading for ~$18/share. Today it's $24.71/share. Investors are hungry for profit, and smell an easy meal with this merger.

[Kozworth]

Bitdefender for me was the best AV I have ever tried, it is the least intrusive and has the lowest hit to performace IMO.  I have tried both avast and AVG in the past I can't say I was impressed.  I will say that it has been several years ago now since I have used them so maybe they have improved.

[dalekphalm]

8 minutes ago, Kozworth said:

Bitdefender for me was the best AV I have ever tried, it is the least intrusive and has the lowest hit to performace IMO.  I have tried both avast and AVG in the past I can't say I was impressed.  I will say that it has been several years ago now since I have used them so maybe they have improved.

IMHO the best days of both Avast and AVG are long behind them. Back in the mid-2000's, they were both slaying any and every other AV in town, including the biggest paid AV out there. They hit a peak, and have been on the down slope ever since.

 

Bitdefender is quite good. They consistently rank within the top 3 AV's (paid and free) every year. I've never used their corporate product, but I've heard good things about it.

 

Personally I stick with MSE/Defender + Malwarebytes for home use. When I feel like coughing up for a paid AV, I'm partial to Kaspersky. They consistently rank up there with Bitdefender, and I've used them pretty extensively.

 

We use Kaspersky Endpoint Security here at work (~150 clients), and for the most part, it's very good. The management side of things on the Server Console is quite extensive. The only thing I wish they would improve, is some sort of auto-detection for when you uninstall a client.

 

Basically, what happens is when you uninstall a client, that "Computer" remains as an entry in the Server Console, taking up a license. If you later reinstall the client onto the same computer, it often appears as a completely new entry on the server console, taking up another license.

 

We accidentally blew past our 151 PC license once, because there were over a dozen computers taking up 2 (or even 3) licenses each. I'm unsure if any other Enterprise Grade AV has this as an issue.