History
Avast was founded by Eduard Kučera and Pavel Baudiš in 1988.[8] The founders met each other at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia.[8] They studied math and computer science, because the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia would require them to join the communist party to study physics.[8] At the institute, Pavel Baudiš discovered the Vienna virus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it.[8][9][10] Afterwards, he asked Eduard Kučera to join him in cofounding Avast as a cooperative.[9] The cooperative was originally called Alwil Software and only the software was named Avast.[11]
The cooperative was changed to a joint partnership in 1991, two years after the velvet revolution[12] caused a regime change in Czechoslovakia. The new regime severed ties with the Soviet Union and reverted the country's economic system to a market economy.[9][11] In 1995, Avast employee Ondřej Vlček wrote the first antivirus program for the Windows 95 operating system.[9] In the 1990s, security researchers at the Virus Bulletin, an IT security testing organization, gave the Avast software an award in every category tested, increasing the popularity of the software.[9] However, by the late 1990s, the company was struggling financially.[8] Alwil Software rebuffed acquisition offers by McAfee, who was licensing the Avast antivirus engine.[8]
By 2001, Alwil Software was experiencing financial difficulties, when it converted to a freemium model, offering a base Avast software product at no cost.[9] As a result of the freemium model, the number of users of the software grew to one million by 2004[9] and 20 million by 2006.[11] Former Symantec executive Vince Steckler was appointed CEO of Avast in 2009.[13] In 2010, Alwil Software changed its name to Avast, adopting the name of the software,[11] and raised $100 million in venture capital investments.[14] The following December, Avast filed for an initial public offering, but withdrew its application the following July, citing changes in market conditions. In 2012, Avast fired its outsourced tech support service iYogi, after it was discovered that iYogi was using misleading sales tactics to persuade customers to buy unnecessary services.[15]
In 2014, CVC Capital bought an interest in Avast for an undisclosed sum. The purchase valued Avast at $1 billion.[17][18] Later that year, Avast acquired mobile app developer Inmite in order to build Avast's mobile apps.[19] Additionally, Avast's online support forum was compromised in 2014, exposing 400,000 names, passwords and email addresses.[20][21] By 2015, Avast had the largest share of the market for antivirus software.[22] In July 2016, Avast reached an agreement to buy AVG for $1.3 billion.[23] AVG was a large IT security company that sold software for desktops and mobile devices.[24]
Ondřej Vlček assumed the role of CEO and co-owner of Avast Plc in July 2019.[28] A day later, he changed his annual pay to $1 and pledged his board director's compensation of $100,000 to charity.[28] In October 2019, Jaya Baloo joined Avast as their Chief Information Security Officer.[29]
In April 2020, Avast released a new secure, private mobile web browser for Android based on technology acquired from previously unreported acquisition of Tenta, a Seattle-based startup.[30]
In July 2021, NortonLifeLock, an American cybersecurity company, announced that it is in talks to merge with Avast Software. In August 2021, Avast's board of directors agreed to an offer of US$8 billion. In September 2022, the Competition and Markets Authority approved the proposed takeover by NortonLifeLock so allowing the transaction to be completed. The merged company became known as Gen Digital.[31][32][33][34][35]
