PC Pro Magazine

“Billion-dollar deals don’t usually affect my business directly, but this one is different”

Among the chaotic headlines of 2021 were some footnotes on corporate acquisitions that sent chills up my spine. It began in February when NortonLifeLock (Norton’s parent company) acquired BullGuard and Avira, and concluded in October with Norton announcing its intention to merge with Avast.

Billion-dollar deals don’t usually affect my business and customers directly, but this one is different. BullGuard, Avast and Avira are the most common security products that I see on users’ systems. The other is AVG, which was acquired by Avast in 2016, so should also now be considered part of the NortonLifeLock family. From now on, for the sake of clarity, I’ll simply call it Norton.

We’ve been BullGuard resellers since 2008 and it’s a product I still use myself, as do a huge percentage of our customers. Security software is an oddity in the retail world as there’s almost a tribal (definitely fanatical) element that isn’t present with office software. doesn’t create lovely infographics about which spreadsheet creates the best pie-charts because it’s not that important, but security is. Customers pay attention to the rankings, wanting to

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