Antivirus merger: Avast offers $1.3 billion for AVG

Antivirus vendor Avast Software has agreed to buy rival AVG Technologies for US$1.3 billion in cash.

The deal will give Avast access to over 400 million “endpoints,” or devices running its and AVG’s software, 160 million of them phones or tablets, the company said Tuesday.

Avast hopes the deal will make the combined company more efficient, as well as allowing it to take advantage of new growth opportunities such as securing the internet of things.

“This combination is great for our users. We will have over 250 million PC/Mac users enabling us to gather even more threat data to improve the protection to our users,” Avast CEO Vincent Stickler wrote on the company blog.

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