User:Empey at Avast/draft

url=http://ekonomika.idnes.cz/fotogalerie-z-nove-kancelare-avastu-db5-/ekoakcie.aspx?c=A160122_175550_ekoakcie_rny | language=cs | accessdate=August 7, 2017}} Avast was founded by Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera in 1988 as a cooperative and has been a private company since 2010. In July 2016, Avast acquired competitor AVG for $1.3 billion.

Corporate history
Avast was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis in 1988. The founders met each other at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia. The founders weren't allowed to study physics without joining the communist party, which they did not want to do, so they studied math and computer science instead. At the Institute, Baudiš discovered the Viennavirus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it. Afterwards he asked Kucera to join him in cofounding Avast as a cooperative. The cooperative was originally called Alwil and only the software was named Avast.

The cooperative was changed to a joint partnership in 1991, two years after the velvet revolution caused a regime change in Czechoslovakia. The new regime severed ties with the Soviet Union and allowed more capitalist organizations. A few years later in 1995, Avast employee Ondřej Vlček wrote the first antivirus program for the Windows 95 operating system. In the 1990s security researchers at the Virus Bulletin, an IT security testing organization, gave the Avast an award in every category tested, increasing the popularity of the software. However, by the late 1990s, the company was struggling financially. Alwil rebuffed acquisition offers by McAfee, who was licensing the Avast antivirus engine.

By 2001, Alwil was facing financial difficulties, when it converted to a freemium model, offering base Avast at no cost. As a result of the freemium model, the number of users of the software grew to one million by 2004 and 20 million by 2006. Former Symantec executive Vince Steckler was appointed CEO of Avast in 2009. In 2010, Alwil changed its name to Avast, adopting the name of the software and raised $100 million in venture capital investments. 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. By 2013 the Avast had 200 million users in 38 countries and had been translated into 43 languages. At the time, the company had 350 employees.

In 2014, CVC Capital Partners bought an interest in Avast for an undisclosed sum. The purchase valued Avast at $1 billion. Later that year, Avast acquired mobile app developer Inmite in order to build Avast's mobile apps. Additionally, in 2014 Avast's online support forum was compromised, exposing 400,000 names, passwords, and email addresses. By 2015, Avast had the largest share of the market for antivirus software. In July 2016, Avast reached an agreement to buy AVG Technologies for $1.3 billion. AVG was a large IT security company that sold software for desktops and mobile devices. In July 2017, Avast acquired UK-based Piriform for an undisclosed sum. Piriform was the developer of CCleaner. Shortly afterwards it was disclosed that someone may have created a malicous version of CCleaner with a backdoor for hackers.

Products
Avast develops and markets business and consumer IT security products for servers, desktops, and mobile devices. The company sells both the Avast product line and the acquired AVG-branded products. As of late 2017, the company had merged the AVG and Avast business product lines and were working to integrate corporate departments from both companies. Additionally, Avast has developed utility software products to improve battery life on mobile devices, cleanup unnecessary files on a hard drive, find secure wireless networks or create a VPN connection to the internet.

Avast and AVG consumer security software is sold on a freemium model, where basic security features are free, but more advanced features require purchasing a premium version. The free version is also supported by ads. Additionally, all Avast users provide data about their PC or mobile device to Avast, which is used to identify new security threats. Antivirus scanning, browser cleanup, a secure browser, password management, and network security features are provided for free, while firewall, anti-spam, and online banking features have to be purchased. According to PC Pro, the software does not "nag" users about upgrading. About 3% of Avast's users pay for a premium version (10% in the US).

The Avast business product family includes features for endpoint protection, Wi-Fi security, antivirus, identity protection, password management, and data protection. For example, the desktop product will look for vulnerabilities in the wi-fi network and run applications suspect of having malicious hardware in an isolated sandbox. The Avast Business Managed Workplace monitors and manages desktops, and assesses on-site security protocols. The company also sells management software for IT administrators to deploy and manage Avast installations.

Reception
PC Magazine gave the Avast free antivirus software an overall score of 8.8 out of 10 and gave AVG a score of 8.4. The review said Avast gets good lab test results overall and has many features, but its password manager is a bit limited. In tests by the AV-Test Institute, Avast 2017 received six out of six points for protection and usability, and 3.5 points for performance. A review in Tom's Guide said the free Avast antivirus product has "good malware protection" and has a small footprint on the system. The review said Avast has a competitive set of features for a free antivirus product, but the scans are slow and it pushes users to install the Google Chrome browser.

The Avast antivirus product for business users received 4 out of 5 by TechRadar. The review said the software had good features, protection, configuration, and an "excellent interface," but took up too much hard drive space and didn't cover mobile devices. According to Tom's Guide, the mobile version is inexpensive and feature-laden, but some features are unreliable or do not work as expected. PC Magazine said the mobile version "has just about every security feature you could want" but was difficult to use.

AVG has generally performed well in lab tests. AV-Test Institute gave AVG six out of six points for usablity, 5.5 points for protection and 5.5 points for performance. However, AVG scored 81.05 in Virus Bulletin's lab tests, which is slightly below average. The software is "very good" at detecting malware, but "disappointing" in antiphishing screening. A review in Tom's Hardware gave the AVG software seven out of ten stars. It said the software has a small footprint and has good malware protection, but does not have a quick scan option and not many additional features.

Corporate history
Avast was founded by Eduard Kucera and Pavel Baudis in 1988. The founder met each other at the Research Institute for Mathematical Machines in Czechoslovakia. The founders weren't allowed to study physics without joining the communist party, which they did not want to do, so they were studying math and computer science instead. At the Institute, Pavel Baudiš discovered the Viennavirus on a floppy disk and developed the first program to remove it. Afterwards he asked Eduard Kucera to join him in cofounding Avast as a cooperative. The cooperative was originally called Alwil and only the software was named Avast.

The cooperative was changed to a joint partnership in 1991, two years after the velvet revolution caused a regime change in Czechoslovakia. The new regime severed ties with the Soviet Union and allowed more capitalist organizations. A few years later in 1995, Avast employee Ondřej Vlček wrote the first antivirus program for the Windows 95 operating system. In the 1990s security researchers at the Virus Bulletin, an IT security testing organization, gave the Avast an award in every category tested, increasing the popularity of the software. However, by the late 1990s, the company was struggling financially. Alwil rebuffed acquisition offers by McAfee, who was licensing the Avast antivirus engine.

By 2001, Alwil was facing financial difficulties, when it converted to a freemium model, offering base Avast at no cost. As a result of the freemium model, the number of users of the software grew to one million by 2004 and 20 million by 2006. Former Symantec executive Vince Steckler was appointed CEO of Avast in 2009. In 2010, Alwil changed its name to Avast, adopting the name of the software and raised $100 million in venture capital investments. 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. By 2013 the Avast had 200 million users in 38 countries and had been translated into 43 languages. At the time, the company had 350 employees.

In 2014, CVC Capital bought an interest in Avast for an undisclosed sum. The purchase valued Avast at $1 billion. Later that year, Avast acquired mobile app developer Inmite in order to build Avast's mobile apps. Additionally, in 2014 Avast's online support forum was compromised, exposing 400,000 names, passwords, and email addresses. By 2015, Avast had the largest share of the market for antivirus software. In July 2016, Avast reached an agreement to buy AVG for $1.3 billion. AVG was a large IT security company that sold software for desktops and mobile devices. In July 2017, Avast acquired UK-based Piriform for an undisclosed sum. Piriform was the developer of CCleaner. Shortly afterwards it was disclosed that someone may have created a malicous version of CCleaner with a backdoor for hackers.

Products
Avast develops and markets business and consumer IT security products for servers, desktops, and mobile devices. The company sells both the Avast product line and the acquired AVG-branded products. As of late 2017, the company had merged the AVG and Avast business product lines and were working to integrate corporate departments from both companies. Additionally, Avast has developed utility software products to improve battery life on mobile devices, cleanup unnecessary files on a hard drive, find secure wireless networks or create a VPN connection to the internet.

Avast and AVG consumer security software is sold on a freemium model, where basic security features are free, but more advanced features require purchasing a premium version. The free version is also supported by ads. Additionally, all Avast users provide data about their PC or mobile device to Avast, which is used to identify new security threats. Antivirus scanning, browser cleanup, a secure browser, password management, and network security features are provided for free, while firewall, anti-spam, and online banking features have to be purchased. According to PC Pro, the software does not "nag" users about upgrading. About 3% of Avast's users pay for a premium version (10% in the US).

The Avast business product family includes features for endpoint protection, Wi-Fi security, antivirus, identity protection, password management, and data protection. For example, the desktop product will look for vulnerabilities in the wi-fi network and run applications suspect of having malicious hardware in an isolated sandbox. The Avast Business Managed Workplace monitors and manages desktops, and assesses on-site security protocols. The company also sells management software for IT administrators to deploy and manage Avast installations.

Reception
PC Magazine gave the Avast free antivirus software an overall score of 8.8 out of 10 and gave AVG a score of 8.4. The review said Avast gets good lab test results overall and has many features, but its password manager is a bit limited. In tests by the AV-Test Institute, Avast 2017 received six out of six points for protection and usability, and 3.5 points for performance. A review in Tom's Guide said the free Avast antivirus product has "good malware protection" and has a small footprint on the system. The review said Avast has a competitive set of features for a free antivirus product, but the scans are slow and it pushes users to install the Google Chrome browser.

The Avast antivirus product for business users received 4 out of 5 by TechRadar. The review said the software had good features, protection, configuration, and an "excellent interface," but took up too much hard drive space and didn't cover mobile devices. According to Tom's Guide, the mobile version is inexpensive and feature-laden, but some features are unreliable or do not work as expected. PC Magazine said the mobile version "has just about every security feature you could want" but was difficult to use.

AVG has generally performed well in lab tests. AV-Test Institute gave AVG six out of six points for usablity, 5.5 points for protection and 5.5 points for performance. However, AVG scored 81.05 in Virus Bulletin's lab tests, which is slightly below average. The software is "very good" at detecting malware, but "disappointing" in antiphishing screening. A review in Tom's Hardware gave the AVG software seven out of ten stars. It said the software has a small footprint and has good malware protection, but does not have a quick scan option and not many additional features.