Avast acquires antivirus maker AVG for $1.3BN

Discussion in 'other anti-virus software' started by EraserHW, Jul 7, 2016.

  1. I had not noticed, but AVG did improve in Real World Tests of AV-Comparatives

    Top 10-15 (or bottom) from March 2015 - July 2015

    Top 5-10 from August 2015 - February 2016

    Top 0-5 from March 2016 - recent
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 16, 2016
  2. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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    I thought that IBM bought AVG several years ago ? If so, Avast bought it from IBM, not AVG !
     
  3. TonyW

    TonyW Registered Member

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    Doesn't seem like that happened but AVG Technologies, and under its former name of Grisoft, have made a number of acquisitions, according to this brief history of the company at Wikipedia.
     
  4. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Can you give some more info, what's so great about it? About the acquisition, I don't know what to say, but they both make bloated AV's, at least that's what I keep reading.
     
  5. vlk

    vlk AV Expert

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    Hi guys,

    Just a quick reaction to some of the posts here...

    The main motivation really is the scale. The PC AV market is mature and not growing, and in such situations, only the strongest / largest ones typically survive. Some consolidation will take place no matter if we want or not -- but from our perspective, it's better to manage our future than to have someone else do it for us. The combination with our age-long rival, AVG, will give us the heft and stability we need to further grow and be successful. But of course, this deal doesn't solve the fundamental problem of declining PCs and shift to mobile, as AVG is also pretty much entirely a PC-based business. That problem will have to be dealt with separately.

    In terms of technology, they have some interesting stuff, but we will need to dig deeper to really understand what's there.

    In the meanwhile, I'd actually like to hear from you all. What features do you like about the AVG products?
    I heard about IDP here (that's the old Sana technology) -- but is it really effective these days? Are you guys using it, and see it in action? To the best of my knowledge, it's quite dated.
    What about TuneUp? You're saying they stopped developing it -- so what is it that you're missing there? Can you be a bit more specific?
    And what about the other stuff? Zen maybe? Anything else?

    Now, we're planning to keep both brands, at least for the time being. But that doesn't mean if we will not "borrow" technologies from each side, of course.

    I have great confidence that the users of both products will benefit from this deal -- not just because of technology / feature reuse, but also because of the huge "sensor" network that this combination will provide. The combined companies have 400M+ users, and that's a massive number. Every third consumer PC on the planet runs either of the two products, and that means that the combined data crunching / machine learning engine will have access to the absolutely latest threat data globally, and it will be really difficult for the attackers to hide from that kind of network. And frankly, that's what intrigues me personally about the whole thing the most.

    Thanks,
    Vlk
     
  6. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    AVG Tune-Up has been a frustrating feature in my local area. It kept causing people's Internet Explorer to crash, uninstalled it then Internet Explorer was running great. Then AVG does a product update and the bloody AVG Tune-Up component gets re-installed and the Internet Explorer again crashes. Have to uninstall AVG product for those who uses Internet Explorer for a default browser for this very reason.

    In the past I've always recommended Avast, but something AVG and Avast shares in common. For AVG, no relation to Tune-Up. After some time passes since either product is installed. It eventually interferes with Internet Explorer, crashes IE. Faulting module always points to a Windows system file. Uninstall AVG or Avast, and Internet Explorer is back to normal and running perfectly great.
     
  7. kdcdq

    kdcdq Registered Member

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    Some of us old-timers that have been "secretly" running different flavors of AVG for a considerable length of time (pretty sure I speak for Firecat as well) sure hope Avast does NOT jack the price up on AVG products and allow AVG products to be updated and maintained as well as they are today. I think I smell a big fat rat however. :gack:
     
  8. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    TuneUP Utilities before AVG bought them was unassailable & 100% reliable. After The AVG assimilation of TUU became less than 2nd rate & completely undependable. Sometimes rendering immediate BSODs & weird untraceable problems including never seen BSODs months later. I know because I used to use TUU on hundreds of PCs I built & fixed.

    TUU became as hated as System Mechanic (now owned by iolo). Probably the worst reversal of performance of any software I've ever used. Only way I'd try a thoroughly gutted & renewed/rebuilt/vetted by AVAST TUU. Is a limited free limited Beta Release (hopefully only available to Wilders members) one iota AVAST vetted from the Final Release. And it'd have to say something like in bold red letters on the GUI "MAKE A BACKUP OF YOUR SYSTEM BEFORE INSTALLING TUU!".

    Also I'd want free lifetime license to Avast AV or Avast IS & TUU for this. I hope I didn't sugarcoat my experience too much for you Vlk. :)
     
  9. CloneRanger

    CloneRanger Registered Member

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  10. Dragon1952

    Dragon1952 Registered Member

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    http://www.avg.com/us-en/314
    Prague, Czech Republic – September 6th, 2005 – Grisoft, one of the leading providers of anti-virus security software, announced today that Enterprise Investors (EI), the largest private equity firm in Central and Eastern Europe, and Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's venture investment fund, have made a substantial investment in the company.

    The $52 million investment in Grisoft by Enterprise Investors and Intel Capital will result in a new ownership structure of the company, with a majority stake being acquired from current owners Benson Oak Capital. As a result of this strategic transaction, the two new investors will own a 65% stake in Grisoft.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 17, 2016
  11. vlk

    vlk AV Expert

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    So. If you got it correctly, your fundamental issue with TuneUp is that it breaks computers? Renders them unbootable? Trashes data? Etc?
    I.e. it's not about features (or lack thereof), or comfort of use -- it's just that it breaks things?

    Thanks
    Vlk
     
  12. guest

    guest Guest

    The problem with tune up and other similar programs is that they are useless and don't improve anything. All you need is ccleaner or something similar to clean temporary files, I wouldn't even touch the registry too much.

    I would focus into the development of a good cloud av (continue the work you are doing already with Cyber Capture) and a layered security around it (some modules/layers should be available as well as a standalone apps but all of them should depend somehow from the cloud av for files on execution like a second opinion av), antiexploit (HPA, MBAE), firewall, anti-ransomware, a behaviour blocker, a sandbox... anything else?
    At the same time it should be easy to use and configure but it should have advanced settings and posibilites for those who enjoy tuning up the configuration.

    @vlk Updated again the post
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Jul 18, 2016
  13. Dwarden

    Dwarden Registered Member

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    the q is, was the value of AVG worth it ... wasn't it more wiser to buy progressive teams and popular products instead of overpriced monster stuck in mud ?
     
  14. Phant0m

    Phant0m Registered Member

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    If a person can't ' comfortably ' browse the web without the browser crashing due to Tune-Up, then in my book, it's completely useless utility. This been an issue for at least every bit of two years now. Everyone's PC I've looked at, shown browser crashes because of Tune-Up. When I uninstalled Tune-Up utility, the next AVG product update would re-install it and repeat the frustrating experiences. Now I don't even let AVG remain on people's machines. I show them the IE crash events and they all to happy to have it removed.
     
  15. zapjb

    zapjb Registered Member

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    Well I haven't touched TUU in years ~2012. After crazy sometimes non repeatable breaking & borking problems on less than a dozen computers I cutoff TUU like a crazy xgf.

    At the time the features were pretty good. But I use other software now that is better than TUU ever was.

    The one thing as I remember that I really liked about TUU was that I could EASILY change every single screen theme/wallpaper at startup & shutdown. I could look at calming pictures of my choosing booting up & shutting down. Instead of the M$ harsh, bland & terse generic theme. I still can't find this anywhere as easy & dependable as TUU bAVG.
     
  16. anon

    anon Registered Member

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    Is this a TuneUP Utilities thread?
     
  17. garrett76

    garrett76 Registered Member

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    @vlk Imho, nowadays, the best thing of AVG in terms of protection is IDP.
    AVG signatures are okay, but most of detections of unknown files come from IDP upon execution. So I think it would be a good technology to keep or to add to Avast.
     
  18. Dragon1952

    Dragon1952 Registered Member

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    Avast vs AVG | Detection Ratio Test (2016)
     
  19. ance

    ance formerly: fmon

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    I second that. :thumb:
     
  20. tgell

    tgell Registered Member

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    100% agree. Tuneup utilities are snake oil IMHO. avast purchased Jumpshot then called it Clean-Up. That was basically a freaking disaster. It used grub to put the computer to "sleep" for the cleaning process. Only thing, a lot of computers never came out of sleep and many lost their internet connection. Then the code was completely re-written to take grub out and make it Windows only which removed those problems. Other than using CCleaner to clear temp files, not including it's registry cleaner, I wouldn't touch these "TuneUp" programs with a 10 foot pole. If they were required, something would already be included in the OS.
     
  21. Firecat

    Firecat Registered Member

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    I always thought AVG would end up buying avast and not the other way around. I am, however, sure that avast will end the AVG line of products in about two years from now.
     
  22. guest

    guest Guest

    @vlk Any update about what is going to happen with AVG or Avast? is there a roadmap?
    Is the AVG brand going to disappear? are you going to merge the development effort or you are going to maintain the products separately?
     
  23. vlk

    vlk AV Expert

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    The deal is still pending regulatory approval and hasn't closed yet. Meaning I can't really comment on anything right now. Thanks.
     
  24. rpk2006

    rpk2006 Registered Member

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  25. Dragon1952

    Dragon1952 Registered Member

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    Avast vs 360 | Detection Ratio Test ......on Utube today.
     
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