AVG Technologies
More info
- Creator
- Jan Gritzbach, Tomáš Hofer
- Released
- 1991
- Owner
- Gen Digital (via Avast, since 2016)
- Type
- Security company
The other Czech free antivirus, which was eventually bought by the first one.
The company started in Brno in 1991 as Grisoft, and the product was named AVG after Anti-Virus Guard. Around the turn of the millennium it released a free edition for home users, which spread fast: the protection was good enough and it cost nothing to install on every relative's PC. The money came from business licences and from the users who could be talked into upgrading.
It renamed itself AVG Technologies in 2008 and listed in New York in 2012. In the following years the lineup grew to include tune-up and privacy tools of varying credibility. In 2016 Avast bought its rival for about $1.3 billion, and since 2022 both have been part of Gen Digital. The brand survives as one of several wrappers around the same engine.