bad News for PcTools AV?

Well I personally don't notice that, and you know this story already, it all depends on system configuration, OS, etc. etc. etc.

 

I know ...

 

My supposition has always been that the motivation for Symantec acquiring PC Tools was not to gain access to their security technology or to squelch a security competitor, but rather to use the PC utilities of PC Tools to refresh the aging capabilities of Norton Utilities.

 

I don't know if Symantec knows why they by the companies they do. They bought Partition Magic and then proceeded to let it die.

 

Acquisitions do not always deliver their anticipated benefits. Yet, I think it is foolish to assume that Symantec -- the fifth-largest software vendor in the world -- doesn’t have a thoughtful plan when spending many millions of dollars on an acquisition. Business decisions of this magnitude not made lightly.

 

Squash competition is one of the reasons.
Years ago PowerQuest was one of the more popular disk cloning utilities...
Years ago Sygate was a popular software firewall...
Years ago Nexland produced some good hardware firewalls....which turned into the Symantec R200 and later UTM appliances after Symantec bought up that great brand of routers...
Backup Exec was a great backup program for servers...until...

 

This is business, folks. There's nothing "bad" about it. Large corporations buy out the "little people", keep some of the staff on for a while as a goodwill gesture and give either full or limited support for the previous companies' products. Then, over time, the staff gets the door or becomes full employees of the corporation, and the products either get incorporated into, in this case, Symantec's products or just gets tossed out.

It's pretty standard. I suspect we'll see Threatfire either go the way of the dinosaurs or it will get some tweaks and re-branded. I'm completely betting on the re-branding option.

 

Big corporations go shopping every year, this is normal. It's a fact though that sometimes corporations go shopping like a shopaholic lady.

Acquisitions that do not always deliver their anticipated benefits are bad decisions. If you make a bad decision and you lose money, you have to do everything to get that money back or part of them, respecting the shareholders. Symantec did nothing to gain the money lost by buying PC Tools, so the conclusion is simple.

1. Symantec has already gained by buying PC Tools. Technology, brains, brands, pattents, prestige, one less competitor...etc...
or
2. Symantec has convinced the shareholders and board that has gained, even if in reality has gained nothing.
You pick Pleonasm.

 

One thing for sure, PC Tools firewall will not die. Symantec is optimising this firewall to pass matousec leak tests so that it can compete with other products thee.

As for PC Tools AV, it's better if it is discontinued both free and paid as no one want an AV without spyware, adware and rootkit protection.

 

Obviously, with the benefit of hindsight, an investment that did not yield the anticipated return was unwise. In the world of business, this phenomenon is called: “risk.”

How do you know that Symantec has not achieved its intended business objectives from the acquisition of PC Tools?

 

I don't know...that's why I have noted points 1 and 2 with an "or" between them. In a previous post you said:

So your opinion is that Symantec bought Pc Tools for the name/brand (intended business objectives). So all that money spent for a brand and a market share really limited and above all at the hands of specific companies that have really specialized their offers...like Tune Up and others. ( Norton Utilities as a brand is dead and you know that.)

My opinion is that still remains a bad decision. They have secured a brand for a limited market share, they have not managed to make more competitive the commercial PC Tools products. In any case your position that Symantec gained only a name/brand does not really convince me.

Like I said in my previous post: or Symantec has gained more or they spent their money feeding with illusions board and shareholders. I have not heard any heads to fall so the minds that made that decision are still in Symantec.

It's obvious that Symantec will not share with us the real + and - of the whole PC Tools operation, but it's also obvious to me that they have proceeded with an acquisition not only without a correct business plan but also without any calculation of the risk.

My personal opinion is that they bought PC Tools to achieve some goals but they have never supported any efforts to that direction.

By the way Pleonasm, I know another phenomenon which is called "stupidity" and this is a really wide one, specially in the corporations.

 

They bought the PCTools of today in the Fall of 2008 according to a Google Search.
I'm thinking they will kill the programs off with the possible exception of ThreatFire. Maybe dw246 is right and they will re-brand TF.

 

Not at all. My opinion is that Symantec acquired PC Tools so that they could ‘recycle’ their utilities (e.g., Registry Mechanic, File Recover, PC Tools Disk Suite) into Norton Utilities. If you inspect the feature set of Norton Utilities, it seems that Symantec did so. Thus, I believe Symantec’s decision was motivated by the need to improve and update Norton Utilities, and the choice was one of “build or buy.” They choose “buy” -- very reasonable, in my opinion.

If my assessment of Symantec’s rationale for the acquisition is correct, then it appears to me that the decision was likely wise.

Obviously, Symantec disagrees with you on this point.

 

Usually you are more convincing Pleonasm. In any case I have used Norton Utilities since the 90's but not lately. And I can't really say which features Norton Utilities were missing and PC Tools had ( none maybe! ). Then...which was Pc Tools top product at the moment of the acquisition? It was Spyware Doctor, or not? Does this tell anything to anyone. Do you buy the Group Daimler to build a better Smart and you ignore the Mercedes-Benz division? This is Symantec's logic? My best regards Pleonasm.

 

Yes, it’s also very possible that Symantec ‘recycled’ some of the functionality of Spyware Doctor into Norton AntiVirus, but that’s very difficult to ascertain based upon publically available information. It could certainly have been part of their justification for the acquisition, too.

And, best wishes to you, NoIos.

 

I thought they bought it to include Threatfire tech into Norton products?

 

This article give a pretty good rationale for Symantec's acquisition of PC Tools:
http://www.zdnet.com.au/pc-tools-to-be-poor-man-s-norton-339291671.htm
which would explain why they are still operating, since historically Symantec's consumer division usually buys up companies to eliminate competition.

(short version: it gives them a foothold in their weakest regional market with lower price-point products so they don't have to lower prices on their core stuff to be competitive there)

 

Threatfire once was Cyberhawk.
May 29 2007 PC Tools buys Cyberhawk from Novatix. August 18 2008 Symantec buys PC Tools.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/150227/symantec_buys_pc_tools.html

Explains almost all of the things we have discussed here. It seems that Symantec wanted all and it's obvious that they have integrated what they could. Remains unanswered the question. What was the purpose or the need to leave PC Tools alive? I guess we'll never learn the exact terms, plans, ideas and the % of successful integration and development of the PC Tools technologies.

 

Thanks for the link.

 

You are correct of course. As far as Symantec consumer division they sometimes acquire companies to snatch technology, but more often to eliminate competing products.

I still think someone over there screwed up on the Partition Magic buy. They didn't have a competing product and they did nothing with the technology. They slapped their name on the box and kept the product in their line-up, but stopped doing any development on and and soon lost the market. Maybe they needed a tax write-off?

 

If the AV is being phased out, why did it just enter AV-Comparatives testing ??

 

FYI -- This thread on the PC Tools forum confirms that Symantec ‘recycled’ the registry cleaning, system monitoring and privacy cleaning features of the PC Tools’ products into Norton Utilities.

 

May I introduce you to to General Motors, the FORMER largest automaker in the world.

 

PC tools deserves to die. The only way they kept people was to trick them into automatic renewal. When you bought their product, you probably wouldn't notice the strategically placed radio button already checked for auto renewal. You were expected to Uncheck it if you didn't want the auto renewal. Pretty slick eh?

 

Don't celebrate their demise yet. They're still selling Spyware Doctor with AV on their website.