Commtouch acquires Frisk (F-Prot)

[Lordman]

Commtouch has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Reykjavik, Iceland-based FRISK Software International’s antivirus assets. FRISK is a leading provider of antivirus solutions for the corporate, consumer, and SDK markets. Its well-established product line, F-PROT, is used by millions of people and organizations. FRISK also currently provides technology used by Commtouch’s Antivirus, and as a result, the two AV engineering teams have worked together for nearly 20 years.

The acquisition will allow Commtouch to benefit from FRISK’s IP and accelerate its launch of white label antivirus solutions for the OEM market. It will also enable Commtouch to provide more services and white labeled applications, and enhance the company’s antivirus capabilities. Upon closing, Commtouch will acquire 100 percent of FRISK’s antivirus assets, including its products, employees and IP.

In addition to leading-edge technology, FRISK brings with it many highly talented staff including FRISK’s founder, Friðrik Skúlason. Friðrik was the first to develop the heuristic detection technology that is now widely used in most antivirus products. He will become Commtouch’s vice president of antivirus technologies.

Commtouch will continue to support the needs of all FRISK customers, channel partners and distributors, while also maintaining FRISK’s F-PROT and Lykla-Pétur (Iceland-specific) brands.

The official announcement may be viewed here.

A document containing questions and answers related to the acquisition may be downloaded here.

[cupez80]

i hope f-prot will rise again like batman

[lodore]

This should be interesting. Hopfully this will give the company more resources to develop faster.

[pintas]

Originally Posted by lodore

This should be interesting. Hopfully this will give the company more resources to develop faster.

Agree. F-Prot has it's potential, and i sure would like to see it go further.
The F-Prot website also needs to be more captivating, i think it's an important sales tool.

[Blackcat]

Sad but inevitable as Frisk development has been stagnant for a number of years now; a vendor who had seen its best days back with F-Prot 3/F-Prot for DOS. At best a second/third-rate AV scanner now.

A number of other small AV vendors may go the same way.

[Dark Shadow]

F- Prot is on one of my favorite short list of AV.It is small and light, a great AV for low resource systems like netbooks.I hope it rises to the top.

[Judge Dee]

Originally Posted by Blackcat

...a vendor who had seen its best days back with F-Prot 3/F-Prot for DOS....

I sure used F-Prot for DOS on demand. It was free and powerful.
Glad to see this.

[Lordman]

"The acquisition of FRISK accelerates Commtouch’s ability to provide industry-leading antivirus solutions. We plan to release version 7 of F-PROT; it will be available shortly after the acquisition closes providing exciting new functionality for the AV market – and it’s designed to be simple to translate and white label."

[Dark Shadow]

Originally Posted by Lordman

"The acquisition of FRISK accelerates Commtouch’s ability to provide industry-leading antivirus solutions. We plan to release version 7 of F-PROT; it will be available shortly after the acquisition closes providing exciting new functionality for the AV market – and it’s designed to be simple to translate and white label."

Thats great.

[blacknight]

I liked F-Prot: if only I had assurances about his detection, I used it again.

[hamlet]

What do they mean when they say it will "be simple to translate and white label"?

Just curious.

[entropism]

I believe it means they're going to make a generic "base" version of the program that they can license out to companies who want to relabel it as their own.

[RejZoR]

The main question here is, who would want to do that? Its days have long passed, its performance is very questionable and they haven't really moved it anywhere for years. If you fall asleep in AV segment you're pretty much useless.
And that's what happened to F-Prot. Maybe it was good in the very distant past but in the last years it was nothing to brag about. I've seen many free programs that simply perfom better, look better and have more options and settings along with better interface.

[Noob]

Been using PC's since 2001 (Late to the game ) and never knew F-Prot was a powerhouse back then. :O:O
Lets see if this brings positive changes.

[RejZoR]

F-Prot wasn't anything particularly special in 2001 either. It was in the 90' however...

[Noob]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

F-Prot wasn't anything particularly special in 2001 either. It was in the 90' however...

Well what i tried to say is that when i started using PC's i was already late for the F-Prot party.

[Lordman]

It will begin a new F-Prot stage

[RejZoR]

I hope so...

[sg09]

Commtouch had recently acquired authentium antivirus (2010)
http://www.commtouch.com/antivirus
And that was also using F-Prot engine. Good to know that they have acquired the total control. So, what will be the fate of antivirus using their engine like returnil etc?

[Chiron]

Originally Posted by sg09

Commtouch had recently acquired authentium antivirus (2010)
http://www.commtouch.com/antivirus
And that was also using F-Prot engine. Good to know that they have acquired the total control. So, what will be the fate of antivirus using their engine like returnil etc?

Does returnil use F-Prot's engine?

[Ibrad]

Originally Posted by RejZoR

F-Prot wasn't anything particularly special in 2001 either. It was in the 90' however...

It was kinda special as they had IC working on the heru engine. Well from what I can tell from old threads it was.

[RejZoR]

After he left, they sort of left it to rot instead of improve it further. v6 was released ages later and from the looks of it it was just a tiny service pack despite the big number change. Interface was pretty much the same and detection was horrible as well.

[sg09]

Originally Posted by Chiron

Does returnil use F-Prot's engine?

Yup that's what Google says.
http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivi...ual-System.htm

[Lordman]

Commtouch Completes Acquisition of FRISK Software Antivirus Business

http://www.commtouch.com/press-relea...virus-business

[Macstorm]

Kewl

The old venerable F-Prot, I hope they get back in business with over-average malware detection.