The deal, equivalent to more than EUR 6.7 billion (roughly
Rs. 58,400 crores), "is a huge step forward for consumer cybersafety and
will ultimately enable us to achieve our vision to protect and empower people
to live their digital lives safely", Norton chief executive Vincent
Pilette said in a joint statement.
Ondrej Vlcek, chief executive of London-listed Avast, said
that amid increasing global cyberthreats, the tie-up would allow for
"enhanced solutions and services, with improved capabilities".
More than 500 million users will benefit from the new
group's safety offerings, the statement added.
Pilette was set to become chief executive of the expanded
group, while Vlcek is to join NortonLifeLock as president and become a member
of the NortonLifeLock board.
The combined company, to be listed on the Nasdaq, will be
dual headquartered in Prague and Tempe, Arizona.
Businesses worldwide are at threat from an increasingly
lucrative form of digital hostage-taking, or ransomware attacks, that typically
see hackers encrypting victims' data and then demanding money for restored
access.
A massive ransomware attack on US tech firm Kaseya in July
affected businesses from pharmacies to gas stations in at least 17 countries.
While Kaseya was little known to the public, analysts say it
was a ripe target as its software is used by around 40,000 businesses, allowing
the hackers to paralyse many companies with a single blow.
"At a time when global cyber threats are growing, yet
cyber safety penetration remains very low, together with NortonLifeLock, we
will be able to accelerate our shared vision of providing holistic cyber
protection for consumers around the globe," Vlcek added Wednesday.
US cybersecurity officials last week announced that Amazon,
Google, and Microsoft had enlisted to help them fight ransomware and defend
cloud computing systems from hackers.
The tech giants are among firms signed on to be part of a
Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative intended to combine government and private
skills and resources to fight hackers, according to the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
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