Friday, August 13th 2021
NortonLifeLock and Avast to Merge to Lead the Transformation of Consumer Cyber Safety
NortonLifeLock , a global leader in consumer Cyber Safety, and Avast, a global leader in digital security and privacy, are pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended merger of Avast with NortonLifeLock, in the form of a recommended offer by NortonLifeLock, for the entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital of Avast.
Under the terms of the merger Avast shareholders will be entitled to receive a combination of cash consideration and newly issued shares in NortonLifeLock with alternative consideration elections available. Based on NortonLifeLock's closing share price of USD 27.20 on July 13, 2021 (being the last trading day for NortonLifeLock shares before market speculation began in relation to the merger on July 14, 2021, resulting in the commencement of the offer period), the merger values Avast's entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital between approximately USD 8.1B and USD 8.6B, depending on Avast shareholders' elections.
The boards of NortonLifeLock and Avast believe that the merger has compelling strategic and financial rationale and represents an attractive opportunity to create a new, industry-leading consumer Cyber Safety business, leveraging the established brands, technology and innovation of both groups to deliver substantial benefits to consumers, shareholders, and other stakeholders.
"This transaction is a huge step forward for consumer Cyber Safety and will ultimately enable us to achieve our vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely," said Vincent Pilette, Chief Executive Officer of NortonLifeLock. "With this combination, we can strengthen our Cyber Safety platform and make it available to more than 500 million users. We will also have the ability to further accelerate innovation to transform Cyber Safety."
"At a time when global cyber threats are growing, yet cyber safety penetration remains very low, together with NortonLifeLock, we will be able to accelerate our shared vision of providing holistic cyber protection for consumers around the globe," said Ondřej Vlček, Chief Executive Officer of Avast. "Our talented teams will have better opportunities to innovate and develop enhanced solutions and services, with improved capabilities from access to superior data insights. Through our well-established brands, greater geographic diversification and access to a larger global user base, the combined businesses will be poised to access the significant growth opportunity that exists worldwide."
Strategic and Financial Benefits
Organization and Management
Following the completion of the transaction, NortonLifeLock's CEO, Vincent Pilette, will remain CEO, NortonLifeLock's CFO, Natalie Derse, will remain CFO, and Avast's CEO, Ondřej Vlček, is expected to join NortonLifeLock as President and become a member of the NortonLifeLock Board of Directors. In addition, Pavel Baudiš, a co-founder and current director of Avast, is expected to join the NortonLifeLock Board as an independent director.
On completion of the merger, the combined company will be dual headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, and Tempe, Arizona, USA, and will have a significant presence in the Czech Republic. The combined company will be listed on NASDAQ.
Transaction Details
For specific details of the proposed transaction please visit our transaction microsite.
Under the terms of the merger Avast shareholders will be entitled to receive a combination of cash consideration and newly issued shares in NortonLifeLock with alternative consideration elections available. Based on NortonLifeLock's closing share price of USD 27.20 on July 13, 2021 (being the last trading day for NortonLifeLock shares before market speculation began in relation to the merger on July 14, 2021, resulting in the commencement of the offer period), the merger values Avast's entire issued and to be issued ordinary share capital between approximately USD 8.1B and USD 8.6B, depending on Avast shareholders' elections.
"This transaction is a huge step forward for consumer Cyber Safety and will ultimately enable us to achieve our vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely," said Vincent Pilette, Chief Executive Officer of NortonLifeLock. "With this combination, we can strengthen our Cyber Safety platform and make it available to more than 500 million users. We will also have the ability to further accelerate innovation to transform Cyber Safety."
"At a time when global cyber threats are growing, yet cyber safety penetration remains very low, together with NortonLifeLock, we will be able to accelerate our shared vision of providing holistic cyber protection for consumers around the globe," said Ondřej Vlček, Chief Executive Officer of Avast. "Our talented teams will have better opportunities to innovate and develop enhanced solutions and services, with improved capabilities from access to superior data insights. Through our well-established brands, greater geographic diversification and access to a larger global user base, the combined businesses will be poised to access the significant growth opportunity that exists worldwide."
Strategic and Financial Benefits
- Accelerates the transformation of consumer Cyber Safety with over 500 million users;
- Combines Avast's strength in privacy and NortonLifeLock's strength in identity, creating a broad and complementary product portfolio, beyond core security and towards adjacent trust-based solutions;
- Strengthens geographic diversification and facilitates expansion into the SOHO / VSB segments;
- Unlocks significant value creation through approximately USD 280 million of annual gross cost synergies, with additional upside potential from new reinvestment capacity for innovation and growth;
- Brings together two strong and highly experienced consumer-focused management teams.
Organization and Management
Following the completion of the transaction, NortonLifeLock's CEO, Vincent Pilette, will remain CEO, NortonLifeLock's CFO, Natalie Derse, will remain CFO, and Avast's CEO, Ondřej Vlček, is expected to join NortonLifeLock as President and become a member of the NortonLifeLock Board of Directors. In addition, Pavel Baudiš, a co-founder and current director of Avast, is expected to join the NortonLifeLock Board as an independent director.
On completion of the merger, the combined company will be dual headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, and Tempe, Arizona, USA, and will have a significant presence in the Czech Republic. The combined company will be listed on NASDAQ.
Transaction Details
For specific details of the proposed transaction please visit our transaction microsite.
31 Comments on NortonLifeLock and Avast to Merge to Lead the Transformation of Consumer Cyber Safety
Doubt anyone still using bloated avast was any fan of norton so this merger is likely the last straw to get them on a real antivirus like webroot or bit defender/... unless norton buys all competition out lol
By the way this isn't really news it was posted a week ago.
Yeah well most people have bad habits so windows defender or now microsoft defender is not good at all.
Case and point ransom ware stuck a hole in defenders ass lol
Big difference is I know people hit by ransom ware couple times using only defender
Then finally switched to webroot and no more in a year so yeah defender is just junkware.
Anyone else remembers when Norton Utilities was the first this you installed on a PC, after the OS? (Yes, I'm that old.)
Given, no antivirus suite can compensate or even acount for user behavior, so that point is moot. I can give as much examples as anyone wants.Are you F-Prot old?
You're post is also more than moot point lol a properly tuned 10 defender lol
And as a bonus I can't recommend AdGuard enough. You can buy a lifetime licence usable on 3 devices for $19.99 and it's literally the best thing ever both for the PC and for a phone.
Then install malware bytes and depending on how screwed they managed to make it maybe a free version of Norton or AVG, or Comodo
You just described the general computer user population :clap:
People use products at default settings period it's not their job to optimize anything.
Edit: I'm thinking of their new marketing campaign - Before you had to choose between a resource hog or ineffectiveness. Look no further - now you have both!It's people's responsibility and people's alone to bear the results of their choices. There are terms and agreements that come with every bit of software for a reason.
It's up to the end-user or their computer administrators (where applicable) to make sure they tune their security solutions until they strike a balance between risk and usability.
Many years ago, I tried Nortron's & Ablast's products on several occasions, and found them both to be utter garbazzio......
Nortron's crapfest always caused more problems than it fixed, and Ablast's was sooooo bug-ridden that it constantly fubarred my systems, even after complete reformats and reinstalls of every piece of software I had at the time..... from XP to 8.....
Neva, eva, eva again...
However, in between, I didn't use any antivirus except defender for almost 2 years, and never got any virus or other kinda malwares. Its all up to you which kinda websites you visit.
And for flash drive origin viruses, I always select flash drive from left navigation bar in explorer and never double click on it. NEVER!