NortonLifeLock Shells Out $360M to Acquire Avira

Looking to beef up its portfolio of consumer security software, NortonLifeLock on Monday announced an all-cash $360 million deal to snap up German anti-virus firm Avira.

The deal gives NortonLifeLock an immediate foothold in the European market, where Avira is known for providing a freemium anti-malware product to about 30 million devices.  Avira claims about 1.5 million paying subscribers and a white-label business that pushes the software to about 500 million partner devices.

The deal continues a topsy-turvy year for Avira.  Eight months ago, Avira was sold for $180 million to private equity firm Investcorp Technology Partners and the latest sale is further confirmation of consolidation in the anti-malware and threat-intelligence sector.

Upon deal close, Avira CEO Travis Witteveen and CTO Matthias Ollig will join the NortonLifeLock leadership team.

The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2021.

“I am delighted to welcome Avira to the Norton family,” said NortonLifeLock chief executive officer Vincent Pilette. “We strive to bring cyber safety to everyone, and acquiring Avira adds a growing business to our portfolio, accelerates our international growth and expands our go-to-market model with a leading freemium solution,” he added

“Culturally, we are a great match. We share a relentless focus on delivering innovative products to customers and we always think customer-first. We cannot wait to get started with Avira,” Pilette said.

NortonLifeLock is itself a product of the booming M&A activity in cybersecurity.   Last November, Broadcom spent $10.7 billion to acquire Symantec’s enterprise unit and that deal included the creation of NortonLifeLock as the consumer-facing brand.