The concisely titled NortonLifeLock’s plans to acquire Avast for £6 billion has been given approved by the UK government.
The plans for the merger were announced in August 2021, with NortonLifeLock claiming the deal will create an “industry leading” consumer cybersecurity business.
But the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) was not so sure after noting competition concerns during an initial Phase 1 investigation.
Now it appears that after having a nice hot mug of cocoa the CMA calmed down a bit and provisionally concluded that the deal does not raise competition concerns in the UK.
The CMA noted that the merging businesses had shedloads of competition from McAfee and a range of other suppliers.
Once the acquisition closes, the combined business will be listed on the Nasdaq exchange and be headquartered in both Tempe, Arizona and Prague in Czech Republic.
In a statement last year, NortonLifeLock CEO Vincent Pilette said the merger will create a business with “compelling strategic scale” with a user base of more than half a billion.
“Our proposed merger with NortonLifeLock is a major step forward… creating a world-leading consumer Cyber Safety business which combines Avast’s strength in privacy and NortonLifeLock’s strength in identity protection. United, our highly complementary product portfolios will have far-reaching benefits, significantly enhancing our ability to drive innovation through R&D, and accelerating the transformation of our Cyber Safety platform for our more than half a billion combined users.”
