Antivirus software maker Avast to buy AVG in $1.3 billion deal

The antivirus world is about to get a little smaller, as Avast has announced that it plans to buy AVG for $1.3 billion. That represents a $25 per share price in what is expected to be an all-cash deal.

From Avast:

The process does not allow us to talk a lot about how we would operate after combining, etc. so I can just say a little. I do think 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. In mobile, our combined 160 million mobile users will be used to improve protection as well as to provide an important stepping stone into the Internet of things. Additionally, we will be gaining some exciting mobile technology designed to protect families on line. In SMB, we will be better able to support our business users with a larger geographic footprint, better technical support, and the best technologies from our two companies.

The deal is still in the preliminary stages, requiring approval from AVG's shareholders, as well as that of government regulators. Overall, the process is expected to "take a few months," according to Avast's blog post.

Thanks for the tip, Laura!