Avira has been acquired by Investcorp

[Wraith2020]

It is not likely F-Secure will use Kaspersky engine again. It's either Avira or BitDefender for them going forward.

F-Secure switched from BD sigs to Avira sigs. They never used Kaspersky sigs. So I think it's unlikely they'll revert to BD sigs. After switching to Avira sigs, F-Secure became way lighter too.

 

[harlan4096]

We already lost Kaspersky's K and the pig squeak!

K icon is back since last year: To switch the icon, you must enter the IDDQD combination when the antivirus "About" window is open and in focus.

And You can try also IDKFA for the old pig sound, but it seems it will not work in W10...

 

[fabiobr]

It seems to be hard to keep on the security industry. Big players like Symantec and now Avira being bought, clearly the market doesn't fit a lot of players anymore, mostly because of the Microsoft on the home security (one of the most important categories for Avira Products, btw) and the enterprise products demanding new technologies and more and more investments. It's impossible to keep that without good cash, therefore only banks or financial funds can handle it to keep cashflow or big companies like Microsoft.

Microsoft is being aggressive in the enterprise market too.

Maybe that's the reason Avira doesn't get new big security features these years and why Avast has to sell your data to keep alive, since the main products of those companies are free. Why home users should download another free suite if Windows Defender is already integrated into the operating system? Companies which their main products are free are "dying" because can't find a good excuse for users to download the product and later buy the paid product.

And I'm not saying Avira is dead, but the strategy surely will change.

Ps: I'm talking about home users, not users of this forum.

 

[Cortex]

Hopefully!
This, and the missing BB, plus all the bloatware, are what I dislike about that product.
I wonder why it's so popular here (because it's Made in Germany? Go not far to the East, and find something much better, at least in terms of protection - Avast).

Even possible?
Their Avira Starter or whatever it is called is the worst I've ever seen in a AV product. With all that useless bonus software it installs / offers.

Agree totally, I also deeply dislike the red umbrella

 

[spaceoctopus]

Some say they will get better but i don't think so.Usually they will lose independence, which means a lack of flexibility to, lets say, do things like they want.
Now they will have to do what Investcorp want from them. Focusing more on market share and big cash, than security.Following a bit "Avast's method" in harvesting a lot of user's data and using lots of ads, i think somehow this move from Investcorp will make them happy. More market shares, more cash, average and less refined product.

 

[Nightwalker]

It seems to be hard to keep on the security industry. Big players like Symantec and now Avira being bought, clearly the market doesn't fit a lot of players anymore, mostly because of the Microsoft on the home security (one of the most important categories for Avira Products, btw) and the enterprise products demanding new technologies and more and more investments. It's impossible to keep that without good cash, therefore only banks or financial funds can handle it to keep cashflow or big companies like Microsoft.

Microsoft is being aggressive in the enterprise market too.

Maybe that's the reason Avira doesn't get new big security features these years and why Avast has to sell your data to keep alive, since the main products of those companies are free. Why home users should download another free suite if Windows Defender is already integrated into the operating system? Companies which their main products are free are "dying" because can't find a good excuse for users to download the product and later buy the paid product.

And I'm not saying Avira is dead, but the strategy surely will change.

Ps: I'm talking about home users, not users of this forum.

Exactly ! I was going to post something similar, thanks for saving me time meu consagrado.

I cant share the same enthusiasm that some members are demonstrating with this acquisition, history has shown many times how bad those acquisitions are for consumers.

I think that I posted here and in Wilders Security forum that some time ago that many security vendors would leave the market, unfortunately is hard to justify the existence of the majority home solutions nowadays, after all most of them are inferior to the default, native, non-intrusive and free Microsoft Defender.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Usually they will lose independence, which means a lack of flexibility to, lets say, do things like they want.

The best part. They had their chance; I admit that they have great signatures but they bloated their products. Avira, in its current state, is a PUP. I hope things get better with time

 

[XLR8R]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was of the belief that F-Secure switched from Bitdefender to Avira for their AV definitions.

Yes, they use Avira for now.

F-Secure switched from BD sigs to Avira sigs. They never used Kaspersky sigs. So I think it's unlikely they'll revert to BD sigs. After switching to Avira sigs, F-Secure became way lighter too.

F-Secure used Kaspersky sigs for many years. They had a special relationship, in fact. Ruined only by Kaspersky's decision to limit certain detections and advanced heuristic methods to their own products and not offer it as part of SDK (later rectified, but too many partners had jumped ship by then).

 

[Mahesh Sudula]

Avira is ok ..as far signatures are considered..but the rest of competition are far far ahead of them in terms of acquisitions and Technologies.

Avira main revenue is sourced from Enterprises.I read a lot that it offers its SDK to many like IBM (Threat force)...to hell lot of companies..also some vendors use this guy in their own products (Qihoo, list goes ..)
Awaiting how would future turn out.

 

[XLR8R]

K icon is back since last year: To switch the icon, you must enter the IDDQD combination when the antivirus "About" window is open and in focus.

And You can try also IDKFA for the old pig sound, but it seems it will not work in W10...

These old doom cheat codes?

 

[Paul.R]

I remember back then those was cheats for doom maybe I'm wrong

 

[Lenny_Fox]

Why home users should download another free suite if Windows Defender is already integrated into the operating system?

Fremium antivirus companies like Avira and Avast suffer on two fronts:
1. Windows defender limits the growth of new FREE users (as explained above)
2. The conversion rate from free to premium is eroding also (ten years ago over 25% of the free users decided to buy the premium, now it is less than 15%)

 

[XLR8R]

I bet no one saw this coming

Rumours of Avira looking to get acquired were rife at the end of 2019/beginning of 2020. One rumour claimed Avast was interested. Avast may still buy out one of the smaller AV vendors in the near future.

 

[The Ordynary]

It seems to be hard to keep on the security industry. Big players like Symantec and now Avira being bought, clearly the market doesn't fit a lot of players anymore, mostly because of the Microsoft on the home security (one of the most important categories for Avira Products, btw) and the enterprise products demanding new technologies and more and more investments. It's impossible to keep that without good cash, therefore only banks or financial funds can handle it to keep cashflow or big companies like Microsoft.

Microsoft is being aggressive in the enterprise market too.

Maybe that's the reason Avira doesn't get new big security features these years and why Avast has to sell your data to keep alive, since the main products of those companies are free. Why home users should download another free suite if Windows Defender is already integrated into the operating system? Companies which their main products are free are "dying" because can't find a good excuse for users to download the product and later buy the paid product.

And I'm not saying Avira is dead, but the strategy surely will change.

Ps: I'm talking about home users, not users of this forum.

no wonder kaspersky rushed to launch its free version to compete with Windows defender, if companies that have as their main free product are not doing well what will they say about those that need to sell their products ?, I think nobody will want to buy something they have free and integrated to the system, kaspersky managed to change that, so much that it significantly improved its subscriptions, which shows that its free version is being well accepted.

 

[Nautilus]

The best part. They had their chance; I admit that they have great signatures but they bloated their products. Avira, in its current state, is a PUP. I hope things get better with time

that is the problem , things will not get better in time , just worse. AVG got worse by the AVAST takeover , AVAST got worse since the implementing or takeover of jumpshot ( stil do not trust this company even if they say they came clean on the privacy aspect ) and many products are getting bloated wich each and every release. imho when a company is bought by another company it usually is the begining of the end and once you get your fingers dirty with greed of money there is no turning back...

 

[SerialCart]

Ok here is my opinion... First of all I would never say which software is better than others and so on. I believe each person is interested in some specific features based on the region that he or she is living and hence, he or she goes for a specific brand. I am living in DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and Avira is a very good option. Although I do not use windows and my main Machine has always been FreeBSD or Linux... (Don't bit me I am using CLAMAV )....

So... Avira.... Avira in the last years have been really good in developing and maintaining the back-end of their software. Great signatures and so on. BUT like man other German companies , they are more than horrible in marketing. That is where bloatware comes up... or bad decisions in Endpoint security and so on and so on. Their marketing has been so bad that it completely destroyed their reputation and fame. As an official reseller of Avira I have to say ... they are horrible in supporting resellers. They put limitations and tell you that you can not sell here and there and so on. It is another horrible marketing act.

But none of these are the reason which they sold the company. Because still there are many customers who buy Avira and they are considerable number of customers so Avira would never be in a bad financial position (at least for now).

So what is the reason?!? The main reason is Quantum Computing and future of the security. Yes, Avira is in a good situation right now but quantum computers are coming with new threads which Avira with their current capacity can not afford investment in this area. In upcoming years many small to medium sized security companies will be whether closed or acquired by the larger ones. The future of the security will be different and almost all security companies will need to go with quantum servers to be able to provide the security in that level and in addition now developers are discussing to add the security level to the operators level. Meaning the antivirus will be provided by the Mobile/Internet providers as a service with your internet connection or mobile contract.

In my opinion Avira has made a great move to survive, in addition at least until Avira is covered by the German law, they will not be able to do what companies such as Avast did. Because they CAN NOT. Yes, it they move Avira completely to Bahrain (where the InvestCorp is located) or an another company like Russia... Maybe.


I believe apart from all the negative points that Avira has, it is a really good antivirus and it provides a high level of security.

If someone would like the none-bloatware version just let me know and I will give you the AVP version without all the none-sense.

Stay safe

 

[Kongo]

Couldn't it be a wise decision of Avira to keep focusing on their signatures, as many other AV vendors try to get away from signatures and might want to purchase the Avira engine for their products? F-Secure already does... Why wasting time on creating a Behaviour blocker when the competition is already far ahead - too far probably.

 

[XLR8R]

Couldn't it be a wise decision of Avira to keep focusing on their signatures, as many other AV vendors try to get away from signatures and might want to purchase the Avira engine for their products? F-Secure already does... Why wasting time on creating a Behaviour blocker when the competition is already far ahead - too far probably.

There aren't a lot of resources towards developing a BB at Avira. Avira knows it's cloud and signatures are good enough. But, they need to be on technological edge and the way forward is to have a good BB in addition to signatures and cloud. Avira will get there soon, I am sure.

 

[SerialCart]

Couldn't it be a wise decision of Avira to keep focusing on their signatures, as many other AV vendors try to get away from signatures and might want to purchase the Avira engine for their products? F-Secure already does... Why wasting time on creating a Behaviour blocker when the competition is already far ahead - too far probably.

Yes that is true. But what I heard from one of my best friends who is working for the a major telecom company in Europe that the meaning and types of cyber threads will be changed drastically in next 5-10 years.It is not about signatures anymore. As @XLR8R mentioned, they need more financial assistance for the future of cyber security which is 100% based on quantum cloud computing.

 

[Phil52]

It is not likely F-Secure will use Kaspersky engine again. It's either Avira or BitDefender for them going forward.

Vipre is a good one as well so is emsisoft. They use bitdefender engine. Emsisoft and bitdefender are same they merged