Norton buys Avast for more than $8 billion

August 11, 2021 | 11:03 am

US group NortonLifeLock announced Wednesday that it has reached an agreement to buy Czech rival Avast for more than $8,000 million ($1 million), in order to create a giant of Information Security.

NortonLifeLock explained in a statement that Avast’s operating value is between $8.1 billion and $8.6 billion, depending on the financial methods that the Czech company’s shareholders will choose. The new suite will have more than 500 million users around the world.

Their merger is supposed to generate $280 million in synergies cost annually. Avast shareholders will own between 14% and 26% of the new group.

“This transaction is a huge step forward in consumer IT security,” said Vincent Billett, CEO of Norton, with satisfaction.

His company stated in July that the two companies have the same vision for the market and that they complement each other very well, particularly geographically.

For Ondrej Vlcek, Avast CEO, the merger will allow the two groups to grow even more “at a time when hacking threats are increasing in the world, despite the fact that the use of computer security products remains low.”

The new group will be based in Prague (Czech Republic) and Tempe (Arizona) and will be listed on Nasdaq in the United States.

Created in 1988, Avast is one of the most important groups in security software and offers its products to businesses and individuals to protect their computers from viruses and other computer attacks.

Like Avast, NortonLifeLock (formerly Symantec) has focused on security products for the general public, after selling its enterprise security division to Broadcom Semiconductor Group in 2018.