![]() "After gathering further information from the companies involved and other industry players, we are currently satisfied that this deal won't worsen the options available to consumers," CMA's inquiry group chair Kirstin Baker said. The watchdog said it was open to responses from interested parties to its provisional findings till August 24, before issuing its final report due by September 8.īased on this timeline, NortonLifeLock said on Wednesday it expects to close the deal by early next month. Microsoft has ramped up its free built-in security feature, which the CMA noted offers protection which is as good as many of the products offered by specialist firms. ![]() It noted that the merged company will face significant competition from McAfee and other smaller players while software titan Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) will be strengthened as a competitor. The deal, which would combine NortonLifeLock's strength in identity theft protection and Avast's privacy credentials, has already received the green light in the United States, Spain and Germany.įollowing a more detailed Phase 2 investigation, the CMA said it had concluded that the deal does not raise competition concerns in the UK. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) launched a deeper investigation into the deal earlier this year, noting it could harm competition and lead to British customers getting a worse deal when looking for security software. Shares in Avast (AVST.L) rose as much as 43% to 683.2 pence and U.S-listed NortonLifeLock's shares were up 3% before the bell, after the firms were forced to delay the deal's closing date pending regulatory approvals. Besides Microsoft, which has a distinct advantage as Windows Defender is included in Windows by default, there is ESET, McAfee, Kaspersky, BitDefender, WebRoot and others who all have a sizeable market share as well.Aug 3 (Reuters) - NortonLifeLock's (NLOK.O) $8.6 billion purchase of rival Avast won provisional clearance from Britain on Wednesday, overcoming the final hurdle to creating a consumer security software giant and sending Avast shares to an all-time high. It is unclear at this point if some products will be merged into others, or if products will be sold after the merger completes.Ĭompetitors do exist. On Windows, both companies have a combined market share of more than 25% of the entire market (as of 2020). The merger creates a consumer security behemoth. The company owns several major antivirus and security companies if the deal passes, including Avast, Avira, Bullguard, Piriform and HideMyAss. NortonLifeLock has more than 500 million users after the merger in the consumer space. Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek will become a NortonLifeLock president and member of the board. NortonLifeLock CEO, Vincent Pillete, and NortonLifeLock CFO, Natalie Derse, will remain CEO and CFO of the company. The news inspired a selloff of both NortonLifeLock and Avast shares NortonLifeLock (Nasdaq: NLOK) saw its share price fall 13.28, or 4, to close Wednesday at 26.11, while Avasts shares. Avast Shareholders have two options, Majority Cash Option and Majority Stock Option, for each share that they hold. The deal values Avast at about 8 Billion US Dollars. ![]() 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, technical expertise and innovation of both groups to deliver substantial benefits to consumers, shareholders, and other stakeholders. The deal is expected to close in mid-2022. The deal has been approved unanimously by the Board of Directors of both companies, and is subject to approval by the shareholders of Avast and NortonLifeLock. Bullguard, another security company, joined Avira in 2021 to become part of NortonLifeLock as well. ![]() NortonLifeLock bought the security company Avira in 2020. Part of the company was sold in 2019 to Broadcom, and NortonLifeLock would be the company for the non-Enterprise parts of the business. The company acquired its competitor AVG in 2016 and CCleaner maker Piriform in 2017. Avast was founded in 1988 and managed to gain a considerable market share thanks to its free security offerings. Both security companies have a long history in the security field.
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