Kaspersky to buy out U.S. investors, rules out IPO

On Monday,February 6, Kaspersky Lab founder Eugene Kaspersky ruled out an IPO (Initial Public Offering). He announced that the company will be buying back the 20% of the company owned by private equity firm General Atlantic. General Atlantic bought the stake from Kaspersky's ex-wife, Natalya, who was then chairperson of the board at the time.

"You don't have to report to anybody else but yourself," said Kaspersky. The firm’s annual revenue tops $500 million according to the Reuters article.

Kaspersky Lab has grown rapidly over the past five years, gaining ground against its three largest competitors, Symantec, McAfee (purchased by Intel last year) and Trend Micro. Kaspersky may be on pace to pass Trend Micro this year.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/06/us-kaspersky-idUSTRE81511Z20120206

Kaspersky rules out IPO – should the others? Interesting take by Financial Times on how this and AVG Technologies recent IPO may effect other antivirus vendors plans for going public. In the article - Avast declined to comment on its IPO plans to the Financial Times. Analysts said that Avast could well fare better than AVG, however, as the filing documents had revealed stronger growth prospects for the business. According to the Financial Times, Kaspersky and AVG’s moves could also spell an even longer wait for Sophos.

http://blogs.ft.com/fttechhub/2012/02/kaspersky-rules-out-ipo-should-the-others/#axzz1lfGrilMm

Kaspersky Hits Milestone in Enterprise Quest - This is an informative October article about Kaspersky and includes a chat with the founder on Channelnomics.com.

http://channelnomics.com/2011/10/07/kaspersky-lab-continues-march-enterprise-security-management-products/

Kaspersky Lab Has Good Products

AV-Test www.av-test.org - Kaspersky topped this test among 23 products in Q4 testing.

VB100 (Virus Bulletin, www.virusbtn.com) – Kaspersky Internet Security was four for five in receiving VB100 awards during 2011 for tests this product was in. Their AV solution was only three for five over the same period.

AV-Comparatives www.av-comparatives.org – Kaspersky won Av-Comparative’s Product of the Year Award. (1) They came in third in Av-Comparatives August-December “Whole Product “Real World” Dynamic Protection Test”. (2) Kaspersky received 3 stars out of 3 and placed 6th out of 18 in the “On Demand Detection of Malicious Software Test”.

PC Magazine - Kaspersky Internet Security received 3.0 stars out of five in PC Magazine's reviews of Internet Security Suites 2012. Norton Internet Security topped the list.

PC World – Kaspersky received 4.0 stars out of 5 in PC World's review of 2012 products. G Data topped the list with 4.5 stars .

Avast is Quiet About Their IPO

Avast filed for a $200 million IPO in December. There has been no news about a proposed date. It would have been interesting to hear any management discussions the Avast team had following AVG Technologies' IPO on February 1.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/12/avast-software-files-for-200-million.html