Avast to buy antivirus rival AVG for $1.3 billion
security technology business
James Temperton Lily Hay Newman Matt Kamen Eric Geller Kim Zetter Condé Nast
The deal will likely create the largest antivirus company by market share in the world
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WIRED
Antivirus firm Avast has announced a deal to buy rival company AVG for $1.3 billion (£1bn).

The transaction is cash offer for AVG's shares at a price of $25 per share. Avast will finance the deal with existing cash reserves and debt financing from third party lenders.

The company said the purchase would help it "gain scale, technological depth and geographical breadth". The sale price represents a 32 per cent premium on AVG's average price per share over the last six months.

At the end of 2015, Avast had a 15 per cent share of the global antivirus market, with AVG on 5 per cent, according to data from Opswat.

The merger means Avast could overtake current market leader Microsoft, who has a market share of 15.9 percent, making it the largest antivirus company in the world.

"We are in a rapidly changing industry, and this acquisition gives us the breadth and technological depth to be the security provider of choice for our current and future customers," said Avast CEO Vince Steckler in a press release.

AVG CEO Gary Kovacs said that the acquisition would allow them to "accelerate investments in growing markets" and "continue to focus on providing simple-to-use solutions for consumers and businesses".

Following the acquisition, Avast will have a network of more than "400 million endpoints". The company said this would allow it to create more "technically advanced security products".

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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