Avast Anti-Virus Acquires CCleaner Maker Piriform

Security software product maker Avast is announcing their acquisition of London-based Piriform. The latter is known for their CCleaner performance optimization software, a utility with 130 million-strong user base. Moreover, this also includes over 15 million Android users. Only a few months ago, Avast completed acquisition of rival AVG in a deal worth $1.3 billion USD. The resulting entity has 400 million users worldwide, with 60 million in the US alone.

Avast Pledges to Continue CCleaner Support

What does the acquisition mean for Piriform products? Avast pledges to continue development alongside their own CleanUp and AVG’s Tune Up optimization software. The team at Piriform will be a part of the Avast consumer business unit and report directly to the Avast CTO Ondrej Vlcek. The acquisition puts Avast in a dominant position in the security and optimization software scene. With three independent, stand-alone popular software optimization software in the market, Avast’s share is quite substantial.

What is uncertain is how much cross-technology will there be as time goes on. The underlying technology of Piriform’s products is actually not the main goal of the acquisition. The complete terms of the acquisition is not available to the public at this time. Overall, it gives Avast a solid foot-hold on the London market, a major technology hub for Europe. When Avast originally acquired AVG, they said in a statement that it is to take advantage of emerging growth opportunities in Internet Security. The AVG acquisition specifically to gained Avast scale, technological depth and geographical breath to pursue these opportunities. Much is probably the same this time with the Piriform acquisition, albeit at a smaller scale.