Anti-virus giant Avast to buy AVG for $1.3 billion

Czech antivirus software maker Avast is ready to acquire competitor AVG Technologies for $25 per share, or $1.3 billion (P61 billion), in an all-in-cash deal.

In reports by Wall Street Journal and Tech Crunch, Avast targets to gain scale and geographical breadth by expanding to more markets and businesses. The deal will enhance the companies’ Internet of Things (IOT) hardware and other internet security features.

When combined, both AVG and Avast will have 400 million “endpoints,” or devices, running their software, 160 million of which are installed on mobile.

In the Avast company’s blog post written by CEO Vincent Steckler, he narrated a brief history of how Avast and equally Czech company AVG combated viruses and malware for three decades, even though Avast is a private company while AVG is listed as a public company on the New York Stock Exchange.

“If the AVG shareholders do accept, following the various governmental regulators approvals, AVG will become part of Avast and we will jointly work on a great future together. We expect this to take a few months,” the post said.  Gianna Francesca Catolico