As a curiosity, I read rumors that Mikko Hyppönen had left WithSecure. And indeed, after 34 years...
This is a huge loss, and this ship is unfortunately sinking...
When senior executives and companies announce changes in leadership, what is stated is usually spin and probably not the real reason for the change(s). In other words, not the truth.
Drones are at the forefront of warfare strategies & tactics. That said, anti-drone protections and technologies are currently a very high market demand capability. Current warfare is still boots on the ground and cyber & economic warfare. The future is drone and robot warfare to replace the hooman soldiers. With high demand, and the fact that it is defense industry, Sensofusion should see high profit margins, but that remains to be seen. It is still a nascent micro-company. So I can see why Mikko would find the move to Sensofusion appealing. Working within the global defense industry has its perks. Developing cutting edge technologies that saves lives. One would assume that Mikko is going to earn bank at Sensofusion.
Are F-Secure and WithSecure sinking ships? Well if they are their taking on water began under Mikko Hyppönen's leadership. The evidence shows F-Secure's and DataFellows troubles began a long time ago . Both, while respected for decent products and good execution, have faced increasing pressure within the market. Neither has ever achieved great business success. Hence the de-merger of F-Secure and WithSecure into two separate companies that still are essentially one company in terms of codebase and operational cooperation. In my estimation, within the past year I see moves to integrate with GenDigital. A security software publisher does not drop its own solid technology to purchase another publisher's services/modules except for one reason - primarily reduction in expenses. F-Secure's and WithSecure's adoption of Avira technologies are probably cost cutting measures to reduce personnel and backend overhead and costs. Perhaps even more - setting the stage to be purchased by GenDigital at some point. It is almost as if GenDigital is in the preliminary stages of buying out and absorbing F-Secure (and perhaps WithSecure). I am not confident that both F-Secure and WithSecure are profitable enough for GenDigital to be interested. GenDigital could be assisting both to turn things around. WithSecure has operated in a deficit since the split with F-Secure.
Mikko, as we all know, is extremely smart. What smart person does not jump off a sinking ship - or the smartest thing to do - jump ship and get to another ship before the big dunk?
Both F-Secure and WithSecure are extremely stingy about sharing infos with its userbase. Support definitely will not provide any infos when a customer has regulatory compliance requirements that require risk management about the products - which means the companies need to share product infos with the clients to perform the risk assessments. I've noticed that both have become much less transparent. Usually... that is indicator that changes are coming. My impression is that both companies are hiding lots of negative financial realities. What exactly the changes shall be is anyone's guess.
F-Secure is doing financially better than WithSecure.
Buying 1,000 shares of FSECURE.HE is probably not the worst investing risk gamble that one could make. GenDigital or other security software industry marauder with deep pockets can gobble up both and turn them both around to decent profitability.
