Independently profitable in delivering digital privateness and safety, the businesses now mix to pursue a brand new, joint imaginative and prescient.
It has been greater than a 12 months since Avast and NortonLifeLock introduced our intention to merge. One of many primary causes was to have the ability to put much more assets and experience into new merchandise and buyer expertise, thereby transferring the complete cybersecurity market ahead.
I am delighted that final Friday noticed the ultimate mandatory step on this journey – formal approval of the transaction by the UK courtroom.
The merger of Avast and NortonLifeLock thus goes into impact in the present day.
I spent loads of time with Vincent Pilette, NortonLifeLock CEO, discussing methods to convey our two firms collectively, notably to the good thing about our prospects. It was clear to each of us that the velocity at which the web world is evolving is a big risk to freedom within the digital surroundings. The conviction of the significance of defending this freedom is one thing that each our firms have in widespread; we have now each all the time fought for customers’ on-line rights by way of our values and our merchandise.
Avast has been a bit like household to me and lots of of my colleagues. I joined as an intern and ended up spending an unimaginable 27 years there. So in the present day isn’t just a enterprise matter for me, however a private one as nicely, leading to a spread of emotions with which I write these strains.
Delight in what we have now completed within the 34+ years of Avast’s existence. The journey from a two-man founding group to a world firm with nearly a billion greenback turnover and a member of the celebrated FTSE 100 index has been simply unimaginable. Through the years, the corporate has had greater than 7,000 workers from completely different components of the world, every contributing in their very own strategy to constructing our model. And I am very grateful to each single one in all them!
Nostalgia of one thing coming to an finish. And the recollections of all of the milestones we have gone by way of. Avast was a pioneer of free antivirus, based mostly on our perception that entry to free on-line safety is a fundamental human proper in the present day within the linked age. Our 435+ million consumer base is a legacy that we stock with us into the brand new firm and on which we’ll proceed to construct.
Pleasure concerning the alternative to do much more nice new issues. I really like innovation and imagine that fixed change is the one path to a real long-term success. Furthermore, I can clearly see the synergies between the 2 firms, and I’m satisfied that collectively we’ll obtain wonderful outcomes.
So in the present day, we welcome our new colleagues at NortonLifeLock and embark on the subsequent stage of our journey collectively. We’re in the beginning of constructing a brand new firm that may change the cyber security trade perpetually, and that may basically advance the theme of defending freedom within the digital surroundings. And I discover this extremely thrilling. Within the phrases of Winston Churchill, “This isn’t the top. It isn’t even the start of the top. However it’s, maybe, the top of the start.”
Let’s go!
