BullGuard has joined Avira as part of NortonLifeLock

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Announcement: Avira+BullGuard:

We’re excited to announce that BullGuard has joined Avira as part of NortonLifeLock. With a combined 50+ years in cybersecurity innovation, Avira and BullGuard have helped make the connected world a safer place for people around the globe. By joining NortonLifeLock, we can leverage our combined expertise, technologies and geographical footprints to help protect more people.

For more information:

• FY21 Q3 NortonLifeLock Earnings Information
  https://investor.nortonlifelock.com/About/Investors/Events-and-Presentations/Events/Event-Details/2021/Fiscal-2021-Third-Quarter-Earnings-Conference-Call/
• NortonLifeLock Press Release, Dec 7, 2020:
  NortonLifeLock to Acquire Avira

For questions:

• Press Contact Avira: press@avira.com
• Press Contact NLOK: press@nortonlifelock.com
• Press Contact BullGuard: bullguard@theprroom.com

BullGuard 2021 | Antivirus and VPN for your home and business

BullGuard delivers award winning cybersecurity and VPN solutions to keep people and small businesses safe. Security and Privacy for all your devices on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS

www.bullguard.com

 

[ErzCrz]

Announcement: Avira+BullGuard:

BullGuard 2021 | Antivirus and VPN for your home and business

BullGuard delivers award winning cybersecurity and VPN solutions to keep people and small businesses safe. Security and Privacy for all your devices on Windows, Mac, Android and iOS

www.bullguard.com

Interesting stuff. The usual big guy taking over the little guy. I used Bullguard years ago, I'll have to watch this space and see what comes out of it all.

 

[RoboMan]

Does this mean BullGuard was acquired by Norton, or are they just using BullGuard's engine/technology?

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Does this mean BullGuard was acquired by Norton, or are they just using BullGuard's engine/technology?

Not much info in that press release, but I believe "By joining NortonLifeLock" means that they are acquired just as Avira is.

 

[fabiobr]

My god, they're buying everything.

 

[gery79]

bro this needs to stop .....

 

[marcopaone]

next step is to buy kaspersky

 

[mlnevese]

next step is to buy kaspersky

and Bitdefender... and ESET... and make the perfect multiengine

 

[Nightwalker]

As speculated some years ago, mergers and acquisitions will happen more often because there is no more space for everyone, Microsoft Defender is putting a enormous pressure in the market, so minor and underperforming players will cease to exist in their current form.

Dont even joke around about more acquisitions from them, it would be a tragedy if Norton Lifelock acquires something like Kaspersky or ESET, well for me it would result in simple stop caring altogether about third party antivirus solutions.

 

[mlnevese]

On a more serious note other mergers WILL happen. A smart move would be a Kaspersky/Bitdefender merge to resist Norton.

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Let’s see what the future has for us.

 

[fabiobr]

European market share, that's their focus right now.

 

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Let’s see what the future has for us.

Less choice, less competition, less innovation and higher prices... the end of consumer AV's

 

[Divine_Barakah]

Less choice, less competition, less innovation and higher prices... the end of consumer AV's

I do not think so! Avira, Bullguard and others were always a step behind. I am just sick of this industry. Anyone would just license X vendor’s engine and we got a new antivirus.
We still have many alternatives. We have Eset, Bitdefender, Kaspersky, McAfee, Panda, Avast, Malwarebytes, and Trend Micro.

 

[Ink]

Speculating here, I believe Avira will stay independent ("Avira, a NortonLifeLock company"), whereas BullGuard's technology will get absorbed in their backend systems, or used within Enterprise software.

 

[RoboMan]

Yeah, I expect "lesser" companies to be acquired in these Windows Defender days. And by "lesser" I mean those less known by average Joe and with smaller databases, like Trend Micro, G-Data, VIPRE, etc.

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

What's happening is due to the recession caused by the pandemic. Mergers and acquisitions are very common during a financial crisis. Microsoft Defender's got nothing to do with that.

 

[Nightwalker]

What's happening is due to the recession caused by the pandemic. Mergers and acquisitions are very common during a financial crisis. Microsoft Defender's got nothing to do with that.

Except that it does, those mergers and acquisitions were happening before the pandemic and techs companies were the less affected by it, some like Microsoft even had revenue records.

Windows Defender has a market share of 50% - gHacks Tech News

Microsoft revealed in August 2019 that Windows Defender Antivirus has a market share of more than 50% on Windows and is installed on more than 500 million devices.

www.ghacks.net

Microsoft shares hit record highs, powered by growing cloud sales

Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> on Thursday beat analysts' estimates for fourth-quarter revenue and profit, driven by continued sales increases from its cloud business and sending its shares to all-time highs.

www.reuters.com

Microsoft Defender has more than 50 % of market share and it is growing fast in the enterprise market too:

Microsoft Security—a Leader in 5 Gartner Magic Quadrants

Gartner has named Microsoft Security a Leader in five Magic Quadrants, which demonstrates balanced progress and effort in all execution and vision categories.

www.microsoft.com

Do you really think that Microsoft Defender nigh omnipresence doesnt impact the margins of niche and underperfoming vendors? Most people nowadays simple dont care about buying antivirus or security solution at all, they think that the default antivirus is more than enough.


This was all speculated many years ago:

Paid antivirus vendors need to sell themselves

With many commercial antivirus providers facing a shrinking market share as free software gain in popularity, observers advise that they will need to focus on marketing their level of protection and support.

www.zdnet.com

Edit: Actually Microsoft is doing even better according to Gartner compared to 2019.

It’s no new surprise that Microsoft is a leader according to Gartner, but we can’t help noticing that the company has earned this distinction in five of the 2020 Magic Quadrants:

• Enterprise Information Archiving
• Cloud Access Security Brokers
• Access Management
• Endpoint Protection Platforms
• Unified Endpoint Management

Microsoft is a Leader in Five Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrants

It’s no new surprise that Microsoft is a leader according to Gartner, but we can’t help noticing that the company has earned this distinction in five of the 2020 Magic Quadrants: Enterprise Information Archiving Cloud Access Security Brokers Access Management Endpoint Protection Platforms...

www.infusedinnovations.com

 

[Cortex]

No one seems to have told ESET about a shrinking market - UK site - 1 user 1 year $39.99 UK Pounds or equivalent $54:91 US Dollar

 

[ForgottenSeer 89360]

No one seems to have told ESET about a shrinking market - UK site - 1 user 1 year $39.99 UK Pounds or equivalent $54:91 US Dollar

There is no shrinking market.