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3 Apprentice
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15.5K Posts
1
2209
September 12th, 2022 15:00
Norton now owns Avast, AVG, and Avira
Norton agreed to take over Avira in 2020 NortonLifeLock purchases Avira for $360 million (bleepingcomputer.com)
and today, completed the acquisition of Avast Avast and NortonLifeLock merge to tackle new challenges in Cyber Safety
Keep in mind that Avast had previously acquired AVG in 2016 Avast Closes Acquisition of AVG Technologies | Avast
So the three big/popular free antivirus companies, AVG, Avast, and Avira, all now fall under the "umbrella" of Norton.
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joe53
2 Intern
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5.8K Posts
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September 14th, 2022 22:00
As a longtime proponent of reputable free AVs, I find this an extremely disappointing development. Not only does Norton/Symantec have no past history of offering or developing free AVs (other than time-limited trials), this consolidation of free AVs under one roof does not bode well for a competitive AV market.
I note that in the latest AV-Comparatives tests, Avast free, Avg free, Avira, and Microsoft Defender (free) all outscored and were given higher awards than the Norton AV product.
There are still good free independent AVs out there (Panda, Microsoft) but the field is shrinking.