SC Magazine Awards 2012 Winners To Be Announced This Evening

There will be 32 happy companies at the end of the evening tonight, February 28, in San Francisco. SC Magazine will be announcing the SC Magazine Awards 2012 winners at a ceremony just down the street from RSA 2012 San Francisco. Reps from the other companies? They’ll probably head out to one of the parties to drown their sorrows. Winners? They’ll probably head out to one of the parties to celebrate. There will be more tuxedos, ties, and evening attire in this room than at any other security event within a mile of RSA 2012 San Franciso

See the winners at:

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/sc-magazine-awards-2012-winners_29.html

Awards will be given out in the following categories:

Reader Trust Categories

· Best Anti-Malware Gateway

· Best Anti-Malware Management (client-based, typically software only)

· Best Cloud Computing Security

· Best Computer Forensics Tool

· Best Data Leakage Prevention (DLP)

· Best Database Security Solution

· Best Email Content Management

· Best Email Security

· Best Enterprise Firewall

· Best Fraud Prevention

· Best Identity Management Application

· Best Intrusion Detection/Prevention Product

· Best IPsec/SSL VPN

· Best Managed Security Service

· Best Mobile/Portable Device Security

· Best Multifactor Product

· Best Policy Management Solution

· Best Security Information/Event Management (SIEM) Appliance

· Best UTM Security

· Best Vulnerability Management Tool

· Best Web Application Firewall

· Best Web Content Management Product

Excellence Categories

· Best Security Company

· Rookie Security Company of the Year

· Best Enterprise Security Solution

· Best Regulatory Compliance Solution

· Best SME Security Solution

Professional Categories

· CSO of the Year

· Best Security Team

· Best Professional Training Program

· Best Professional Certification Program

· Editor's Choice Award

Look for winners to be posted only once every four years. Well, actually not. This is a leap year.

Stealthy Goings On In the San Francisco Bay Area

Black helicopters, disguised as black helicopters, hovering on highway 101 just south of San Francisco International Airport. People wearing hoodies, on their laptops looking at the closed doors of a conference room just down the hallway. Rental cones of silence hanging from the ceiling of the conference room. White noise machines. Food tasters on call.

Some black hat operation? Secret meetings on Facebook’s upcoming IPO (Initial Public Offering)? Merger and Acquisition discussions between companies who don’t want to be seen in the same room together or at the “W”, during RSA 2012 San Francisco?

None of the above. Not even stealthy. It’s the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) members meeting,behind held prior to RSA 2012 San Francisco. These people won’t be found with the tchotchke collectors journeying the RSA exhibition hall. Quite an impressive international membership,from A to W. http://www.amtso.org/members.html No, I’m not a member. A number of these people,who easily qualify as malware “smartest guys in the room” will be trekking up to RSA 2012 San Francisco after this meeting. http://www.rsaconference.com/events/2012/usa/mightier.htm

The AMTSO does good stuff. It’s worth checking out their organization and their (free) white papers. Titles include "AMTSO Fundamental Principles of Testing" and "AMTSO Best Practices for Testing in the Cloud Security Products". There is more to evaluating a security product than clicking “like” on a fan page.

The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) was founded in May 2008 as an international non-profit association. They focus on addressing the global need for improvement in the objectivity, quality, and relevance of anti-malware testing methodologies.AMTSO membership is open to academics, reviewers, publications, testers, and vendors, subject to guidelines determined by AMTSO.

www.amtso.org

Is Facebook really worth $100 billion in an IPO?

The press, online press and blogosphere, is overrun with pundits, non pundits, people who may understand valuing a private company, and many more who have no idea how to do so, regarding what Facebook’s valuation would be in an IPO (Initial Public Offering). Now, you can perform your own quantitative analysis to arrive at a value.

Asup Srivastava is an Assistant Professor in Accounting Information and Management at the Kellogg School of Management. He posed the question in an interesting article, “Is Facebook really worth $100 billion?” Beyond that, Asup has included a nice spreadsheet (also an interactive web version) along with the article. You can enter your own best information and perform a 10 year discounted cash flow analysis to arrive at an IPO valuation of your own.

This is a straightforward model for those with any financial, accounting, or analytical background. The model has much substance than doing a revenue multiplier and other rules of thumb floating around the internet. Those “smartest guys in the room” at investment banks have more sophisticated models, but it would cost you $$$$ to get access.

http://expertlywrapped.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/facebook-valuation-tool/

The article is included in “Kellogg Insight”, the Kellogg School of Management's online magazine covering faculty research.

More on Anup Srivastava

Anup Srivastava is an Assistant Professor in Accounting Information and Management. He earned his PhD in Accounting from Texas A&M University, MBA from Delhi University, and BTech from IIT Delhi. Anup’s research focuses on the financial reporting area. His current research interests include revenue recognition, accounting conservatism, disclosures, and executive compensation.

Blue Coat Systems to Operate as a Privately Held Company under Thoma Bravo

Blue Coat Systems, founded as Cacheflow, is no more on the NASDAQ. The private equity firm, Thoma Bravo completed its $1.3 billion acquisition of Blue Coat Systems on February 15.

“This marks our fifth platform investment in the security technology sector and our fourth in networking,” said Seth Boro, partner at Thoma Bravo. “We’re confident our approach and experience in identifying strategic opportunities, coupled with Blue Coat’s innovative solutions and proven leadership in Web security and WAN optimization, establishes a platform for the company’s continued success.”

Thoma Bravo (www.thomabravo.com) has a nice stable of technology companies. These include Blue Coat Systems, SonicWall, Attachmate Corporation Embarcadero Technologies, Inc., Entrust, Inc., Hyland Software, Inc., LANDesk Software, Inc., Roadnet Technologies, Inc., Sirius Computer Solutions, Inc., SonicWALL, Inc., Tripwire Inc., Vision Solutions, Inc.

The nice thing about being private is you can literally say as much or as little as you want to the public (incidents such as equipment ending up in Syria notwithstanding (a rogue reseller)) Missing earnings targets may involve the management team being given a talking to, but it won’t result in dramatic swings in stock price/market capitalization, because there is no stock. No Henry Vanderbilt like quotes, "The public be damned! I am working for my stockholders." will be issued.

Blue Coat has remained in the Leaders portion of the Gartner Secure Web and WAN Optimization Magic Quadrants over the last several years. However, companies like Zscaler, a cloud based web security solution (www.zscaler.com) “providing a high performance solution at low TCO” and Riverbed Technology (www.riverbedtechnology.com) have gotten a good share of buzz and market share recently. Riverbed Technology pulled away slightly from others in the most recent Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/02/riverbed-technology-leader-in-2012.html .

Riverbed Technology (and who doesn’t) has an announcement planned with a partner during RSA San Francisco later this month. Something to do with best-of-breed wide area network (WAN) optimization and public Internet optimization.

"We were under a microscope, and when you are a public company you invest and have to know what the impact is going to be three or four quarters later," said Steve Daheb, Blue Coat's chief marketing officer and senior vice president of corporate and business development. "Now we have the kind of freedom to move quickly and invest where we need to.”

So what is the future for Blue Coat? They brought aboard Gregory Clark as their CEO in September, replacing Michael Borman. In November, they announced that total net revenue for the second quarter of fiscal 2012 was $114.1 million compared with net revenue of $109.5 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 and $121.0 million in the second quarter of fiscal 2011. Blue Coat Systems fiscal year isn’t the normal calendar year.

There could be another earnings announcement any day, now. The Thoma Bravo press release trumped an anticipated earnings announcement this week, it appears.

http://www.bluecoat.com/company/press-releases/blue-coat-operate-privately-held-company-and-aggressively-advance-its

Gartner Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms 2011

Gartner released its Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms report on January 16. Five products made it into the Leaders Quadrant. From an eyeball perspective, the ranking of these in the Leaders Quadrant were Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, Trend Micro, and Kaspersky. The “we are not going to promote our place in the quadrant” award goes to Total Defense. Magic Quadrant for Endpoint Protection Platforms by Peter Firstbrook, Neil MacDonald, John Girard. January 16, 2012 ID: G00219355. Bravilna to these companies!

Note: This is the report for 2011.  To see the 2012 report published in January 2013  http://kensek.blogspot.com/2013/01/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-endpoint.html

To see the 2013 report published in January 2014  http://kensek.blogspot.com/2014/02/gartner-magic-quadrant-for-endpoint.html

Av-Test.org tested eight business endpoint protection products (not all were internet security suites) as part of their December 11 testing. All received certification. They were scored from 0 to 6 on three components, Protection, Repair, and Usability. The products and combined scores are below.



Twenty-three home internet security products were part of the testing as well. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/01/av-test-product-review-and.html
To view the tests and download one-page reports:

http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/novdec-2011/


Using Gartner Magic Quadrants

The below is from a Gartner piece on utilizing their Magic Quadrant.

Clients use Magic Quadrants as a first step to understanding the technology providers they might consider for a specific investment opportunity.

Keep in mind that focusing on the leaders' quadrant isn't always the best course of action. There are good reasons to consider market challengers. And a niche player may support your needs better than a market leader. It all depends on how the provider aligns with your business goals.


http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/research_mq.jsp


Miscellaneous Comments on Kaspersky

• Kaspersky recently announced that they were not going to have an IPO (initial public offering) and repurchased the 20% of the company they didn’t own. Nice article on Channelnomics about this “Kaspersky Repositioning for Renewed Growth” http://channelnomics.com/2012/02/08/kaspersky-positioning-renewed-growth/


• Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 was www.av-comparatives.org Product of the Year for 2011.

Data Connectors Tech Security Conference – San Jose 2012

The Data Connectors Tech Data Conference was relatively informative with forty plus table top exhibitors and eight 45 minute presentations. Presentations – educational without being sales pitches that tended to take up the full 45 minutes. The presenting companies were Bit9, Quest, Arruba Networks, Cyber-Ark, Varonis, Centrify, WatchGuard, Palo Alto Networks, and Axway. If you can spare a day, the conference was pretty informative. You’re not going to get a technical deep dive from the presentations, and you won’t get tech support at the tables, but that’s not the purpose of this conference.

Sound Bytes from the Data Connectors Vendor Table Tops

Palo Alto Networks answered a lot of questions about what they do with apps and whether you do/don’t need a secure web gateway if you have their Next Generation Firewall. Informative booklets on evaluating NGFW’s and Modern Malware.

SonicWall - We’re a Next Generation Firewall Provider, too. Nice demo of the interface.

Unnamed AV vendor (Sophos or Eset) – Felt that one presenter was playing a bit loose with her figures about the percentage of “bad stuff” missed by traditional av/malware software. Informative DLP booklet from Sophos.

Riverbed Technology - Was quite pleased with their latest showing in the most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers . Stated that they are moving away from their competitors in the Leaders section and are gaining share. Still waiting for the information requested to be sent to me. I’m going to be "Crying me a river" if I don’t receive it.

Two of the above stated that they stop more apps with their appliance(s) and allow more granularity with more of these apps than their competitor allows.

From Few of the Presentations

Bit9 – Talked about the evolving threat landscape and Advanced Persistent Threats (quite topical for the SF Bay Area since a university in SF, discovered recently that they have been losing data for years. Small companies aren’t immune from attacks as 75% of threats are targeted at them.

Quest – Talked about security in 2012 and presented on some of the ways to boost your IT security. As always, the weakest link are those end users. Things you need to worry about include: managing the use of social media, unsecured vitual machine deployment, and sensitive data in the cloud.

WatchGuard – Presented on their views as to how virtualization is the key to security in the future. The two top hurdles mentioned by companies – cloud security and privacy and compliance issues. Top cited obstacle was budget (who would have thought it?) at 51%.

Tchotchkes at tabletops - As always, way too many pens. Stress figures are remaking an appearance. White papers? Always. Free desktop AV software? Yes. T-shirts – that was a surprise. A couple of flashlights, lots of candy, “branding bags” were plentiful.

Drawings at the end for people who had a card initialed by all vendors contributing gifts to the pool were plentiful and included an Apple TV. I didn’t stay for the drawings. In fact, vendors at tables seemed to be happy seeing someone come up to them with a beverage in hand, not a card for initialing, asking something other than, “can you initial this?”

For details on the 2012 Data Connectors Tech Security Conference road show (locations and dates)

www.dataconnectors.com

Mary Landesman Departing Antivirus Site on about.com

After twelve years of being the voice of the Antivirus Software site on about.com, Mary Landesman is leaving and will be focusing more on her day job. Twelve years is a LONG time to be involved with one thing like this. She has become an icon on about.com. To read her parting note:

http://antivirus.about.com/b/2012/02/11/a-parting-note.htm?nl=1

Mary Landesman also has a final compilation of her best internet security suites 2012

Top Windows Antivirus - Best Internet Security Suite 2012

1. BitDefender Internet Security Suite 2012
2. Avira Internet Security 2012
3. BitDefender Sphere
4. Kaspersky Internet Security 2012 (the av-comparatives.org product of the year)
5. F-Secure Internet Security Suite 2012


A link to this article and the reviews:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/antivirussoftwarereviews/tp/aatpavwin.htm?nl=1

2012 Shortlist – SC Magazine 2012 Awards Europe

SC Magazine has announced their 2012 shortlist for SC Magazine 2012 Awards Europe. Finalists for the technology awards categories are below. For finalists in the other categories, you’ll have to go to the SC Magazine web site. Represented in multiple categories – McAfee, Kaspersky, Blue Coat, Symantec, Websense, and Fortinet.

Technology Awards Category

Best Anti-malware Solution
• M86 Secure Web Gateway 10.1
• FireEye’s Malware Protection System
• McAfee Web Protection
• Kaspersky Lab UK - Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 (KES8)
• Bit9 Parity Suite

Best Content Security
• Blue Coat Cloud Service
• Barracuda Web Filter
• Accellion Secure Collaboration
• Websense Data Security Suite (DSS)

Best DLP Solution
• Boole Server
• Safend Data Protection Suite
• Symantec Data Loss Prevention
• Websense Data Security Suite (DSS)

Best Encryption Solution
• Boole Server
• Egress Switch
• Becrypt DISK Protect
• Symantec - PGP Whole Disk Encryption

Best Enterprise Security Solution
• Varonis - Data Governance Suite
• Symantec - Endpoint Protection 12
• Splunk
• Barracuda NG Firewall
• Websense - Web Security Gateway Anywhere (WSGA)

Best Forensics Tool
• HP ArcSight Logger 5
• Cyber Security Technologies Corporation - Mac Marshal 3.0
• LogRhythm 6.0
• Absolute Software - Computrace
• LogLogic ST 5.2

Best IAM Solution
• CA Technologies - CA Content-Aware IAM Suite
• Venafi - Encryption Director 6
• Cyber-Ark Privileged Identity Management (PIM) Suite
• Whitebox Security - WhiteOPS

Best Integrated Security Solution
• Fortinet - FortiGate-300C
• Sophos Astaro Security Gateway
• Lumension Endpoint Management and Security Suite
• WatchGuard XTM
• Trustwave SIEM

Best Mobile Device Management
• MobileIron 4.5 Platform
• Entrust IdentityGuard
• McAfee - Enterprise Mobility Management (McAfee EMM)
• Good Technology - Good for Enterprise (GFE)

Best Network Security
• Fortinet - FortiGate-300C
• FireEye’s Malware Protection System
• Blue Coat Cloud Security Service
• Varonis DatAdvantage
• McAfee Network Security Platform
• Bradford Networks - Network Sentry / Network Access Control (NAC)
• Trustwave WebDefend

Best Remote Access
• Quest vWorkspace–MokaFive Suite
• Cyber-Ark Privileged Session Management (PSM) Suite
• Becrypt Trusted Client
• RoamKey
• Swivel Secure - PINsafe V3.8

Best Secure Transaction Solution
• Entrust, TransactionGuard
• Trusteer - Cybercrime Prevention Architecture (CPA)
• IronKey - Trusted Access
• ValidSoft - VALid®

Best Secure Virtualisation Solution
• Rapid7 -Nexpose Enterprise 5.0
• Trend Micro Deep Security

Best Security Management
• HP ArcSight - Enterprise Security Manager (ESM)
• NitroSecurity - NitroView from NitroSecurity
• Cyber-Ark Privileged Identity Management (PIM) Suite and Privileged Session Management (PSM) Suite
• nCircle Suite360
• Secunia Corporate Software Inspector (CSI)
• Websense - Web Security Gateway Anywhere (WSGA)

Best Security Solution, Financial Services
• Vantage
• Informatica Dynamic Data Masking
• ValidSoft, VALid-POS®
• Veracode Platform

Best SME Security Solution
• DigitalPersona® Pro
• Kaspersky Lab - Kaspersky Endpoint Security 8 (KES8)
• WatchGuard XTM 5
• QualysGuard Express
• RCDevs - OpenOTP/TiQR Authentication Server
• Trend Micro -Worry-Free™ Business Security Services

Other Categories

For finalists in the categories below, go to http://www.scawardseurope.com/2012-shortlist

• Innovation Award
• Industry Awards
• Information Security Product of the Year
• Information Security Vendor of the Year
• Information Security Consultancy of the Year
• Best Global Security Company
• Professional Awards categories
• Information Security Person of the Year
• Information Security Project of the Year
• Information Security Team of the Year

Significance of SC Magazine Awards 2012 Europe

• Third party validation by a leading dedicated security publication
• Third party validation by peers
• Marketing/promotional rights for a year, subject to licensing
• A number of potential marketing/branding/lead generation opportunities for the recipients

The judging for the SC Awards Europe will take place in February 2012. The judges for the Technology and Industry Awards are selected for their experience and impartiality and drawn from the senior ranks of the information security profession.

The Professional Awards are judged by a separate panel drawn from the SC editorial team.

The awards ceremony will take place on April 24th at London Hilton, 22 Park Lane London W1K 1BE.

To view SC Magazine Awards Europe 2011 winners - http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/04/2011-sc-magazine-awards-europe-winners.html

A listing of the SC Awards 2011 US winners is at http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/02/sc-awards-2011-us-announced.html

http://www.scawardseurope.com/2012-shortlist


Let the tuxedo rentals begin. Mind the gap.

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

Riverbed Technology Leader in 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers

In the thought and technology leadership battle for supremacy in the WAN Optimization Controller market, Riverbed Technology is the clear leader among those in the 2012 Gartner Magic Quadrant for WAN Optimization Controllers (WOC). (January 2012 ID:G00219270)

Only three companies are in the Leaders portion of the magic quadrant- Riverbed Technology, Blue Coat Systems, and Silver Peak Systems. Riverbed Technology was rated both the highest in Ability to Execute, and Completeness of Vision. Silver Peak Systems and Blue Coat Systems are adjacent to each other and (noticeably) further down in the leaders quadrant. Kudos for being in the leaders section for all three! Eight products total are in the quadrant.

Cautions that may have cost Blue Coat Systems according to Gartner include – late features, management turnover, declining market share, weak softWOC.

Note - Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is acquiring Blue Coat Systems for $1.3 billion. This deal was announced in December. Thoma Bravo also owns SonicWall. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/thoma-bravo-acquires-blue-coat-systems-for-1-3-billion/

Cautions that may have cost Silver Peak Systems include - No softWOC, lacks some application-specific optimization, some video on demand limitations for remote-office caching streaming.

Strengths for Riverbed Technology mentioned by Gartner – Broadest set of capabilities in the industry, overall innovations, broad solution for dynamic browser-based applications like SharePoint.

How Do You Use Gartner Magic Quadrants?

The below is from a great Gartner piece in utilizing their Magic Quadrant.

Clients use Magic Quadrants as a first step to understanding the technology providers they might consider for a specific investment opportunity.

Keep in mind that focusing on the leaders' quadrant isn't always the best course of action. There are good reasons to consider market challengers. And a niche player may support your needs better than a market leader. It all depends on how the provider aligns with your business goals

http://www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/research_mq.jsp

AVG Technologies Goes Public With Their IPO on NYSE

AVG Technologies' two year (?) trek to go public occurred on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on February 1. For a while, the street had the IPO taking place on the London or Warsaw Stock Exchange. The planned opening Thursday morning on the NYSE was to be somewhere in the range of $16-18 US. Instead, it opened slightly lower and closed at $13.00 on Thursday for a 19% drop. Friday’s close was $13.09. A negative first day pop is never the objective. A positive pop rewards the initial investors, generates buzz, etc.

The three lead underwriters for the IPO (Initial Public Offering) were Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan and Goldman Sachs. Those underwriters will also be leading the Facebook IPO.

First Day Press on the IPO (some of the links may have changed)

Financial Times - AVG: not feeling the love

http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/02/02/polands-avg-http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnot-feeling-the-nyse-love/#axzz1lT3sEdh6

Czechposition.com - Shares in Czech anti-virus software firm AVG tank in NYSE debut, despite solid fundamentals

http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/business/markets-finance/shares-czech-anti-virus-software-firm-avg-tank-nyse-debut-despite-solid-fun

NY Times - Facebook I.P.O. Lifts Some Tech Stocks

http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/facebook-i-p-o-lifts-some-tech-stocks/

Forbes - IPOs: Let's Hope Facebook’s Deal Goes Better than AVG's

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/02/02/ipos-lets-hope-facebooks-deal-goes-better-than-avgs/

Deal Pipeline- AVG IPO gets no Facebook boost

http://www.thedeal.com/content/tmt/avg-ipo-gets-no-facebook-boost.php#ixzz1lTJ4XouF

Reuters - AVG Tech shares crash on market debut. This headline was later amended to AVG Tech shares fall on market debut

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/02/us-avgtech-idUSTRE8112EZ20120202

What Happened?

That’s probably being asked in Prague and Amsterdam. Doing a valuation and pricing a private company for an IPO is an inexact science. Market conditions have changed (actually for the better over the last few months). The “guys in the room” may have been overly optimistic in their forecasts they used to generate their valuation of AVG and then back calculating to $16-18 dollar price. Buyers may be sitting back. It’s a positive sign that the original investors sold only a portion of their stock.

One article mentioned that at the offering price, AVG's price-to-earnings ratio was about 15. The writer stated that this made the shares more costly than those of Symantec, whose shares trade at a P-E ratio of about 11. This isn’t a completely fair comparison. Symantec isn’t s a pure security play given that they own VeriSign. Symantec’s mix of business and consumer security software is different. They have a broader overall security portfolio. They also sell security appliances. Hardware security firms tend to have lower multiples.

AVG Technologies Has Relatively Solid Products

• AV- Test www.av-test.org - They came in sixth out of 23 in Av –Tests’s Q4 testing. Kaspersky topped this test.
• VB100 (Virus Bulletin, www.virusbtn.com ) - AVG was 5 for 6 in receiving VB100 awards during 2011 for tests they were in.
• AV-Comparatives www.av-comparatives.org – (1) AVG Technologies was 11th in av-comparatives August-December “Whole Product “Real World” Dynamic Protection Test”. Symantec topped this one. (2) AVG received 2 stars out of 3 and finished 14th out of 18 in the “On Demand Detection of Malicious Software Test”. Kaspersky won av-comparative’s Product of the Year award.
• PC Magazine - They scored 3.0 stars out of 5 in PC Magazine’s Internet Security Suites 2012 testing. Symantec topped this test with 4.5 stars.
• PC World – They scored 4.0 stars out of 5 along with 7 other companies in PC World’s Best Internet Security Suites 2012 reviews. G Data topped this testing with 4.5 stars.

Now that AVG Technologies has gone public, there will be more visibility into the company. More "numbers"will be available for analysts and the public to view - where revenues are coming from, margins, financing, banking, and all that good stuff. More visibility will be given to projections (with the caveats that all public firms make). Analysts may look at churn, which is about 50%, based on AVG’s installed based of just over 100 million users and over 50 million downloads annually on download.com .

PC World Best Security Suites 2012 - Combined with PC Magazine Best 2012 Security Suites and AV-Comparatives.org

PC World announced their listing of Best Security Suites 2012 on January 30. G Data Internet Security 2012 topped the rankings with 4.5 stars out of 5. There wasn’t a broad range in the scoring with seven products receiving 4 stars. Those receiving this score were: Norton Internet Security, BitDefender Internet Security 2012, Kaspersky Lab Internet Security 2012, Trend Micro Titanium Internet Security 2012, F-Secure Internet Security 2012, Eset Smart Security 5, and Avast Internet Security 6. For detailed reviews:

www.pcworld.com/article/248479/best_security_suites_pc_bodyguards.html

The table below is sorted first by PC World’s Best Internet Security Suites 2012 rankings, then by PC Magazine’s rankings, and then by AV-Comparatives end of the year rankings. BitDefender Internet Security 2012 and Avira Internet Security 2012 were also Top Rated by AV-Comparatives. However they did not appear in the World’s Best Security Suites 2012 article. Norton and Webroot Received Editors’ Choice awards from PC Magazine for their internet security 2012 products.



For a grid combining www.AV-test.org, PC Magazine, and www.av-comparatives.org results, go to

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/01/av-test-product-review-and.html

For detailed quantitative test results for some of these and other internet security suite and antivirus products, go to www.virusbtn.com, www.av-test.org, and www.av-comparatives.org . PC Magazine luminary Neil Rubenking performs quantitative tests, as well, in his detailed reviews. After all, isn’t that what protection is all about, regardless of Facebook Fans’ likes? Or go to other articles on Kensek.blogspot.com

For a grid showing combined results from www.av-test.org, PC Magazine, and www.av-comparatives.org go to kensek.blogspot.com the (advantage being tables are sorted by results and in some instances combined, rather than listed alphabetically).

RSA Conference 2012 San Francisco – SC Magazine Awards 2012 Coming to San Francisco

We're now less that a month until RSA Conference San Francisco, running February 27 through March 2. The theme, The Great Cipher, Mightier than the Sword". Free seminars, training, keynote speakers such as former Prime Minister of England Tony Blair, the Expo Hall Pub Crawl, the Codebreakers Ball, and tchotchkes! The event is great for training, to get an advance look at what may be coming up in the trade, and to network with all those people you used to work with at other security vendors.

http://www.rsaconference.com/events/2012/usa/mightier.htm

Visit kensek.blogspot.com during RSA Conference San Francisco for at least one “view from the floor” update.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

• When was the last time you even used a pen, with the exception of signing a bill at a restaurant? So why are you standing in line for one or collecting them?
• That t-shirt you’re debating to attend the presentation to obtain will not impress people at your health club
• The woman walking up to you in very high heels and a LBD. She only wants you for your scannable info
• Turning your badge over prior to asking questions at a booth screams, “I work for a competitor and think that this will hide my identity.”
• Go to www.SFGate.com or www.opentable.com to look for places to munch at around Moscone
• If you are working the booth and someone is chatting with you while looking side to side or down: the former, according to neurolinguistic programming, means they are an auditory, the latter, means kinesthetic. At a trade show, it means either they are looking at the people you hired to be in the booth or they are looking for the tchotchkes.
• One letter – “W”. If you have to ask why, you may want to go back to Moscone and attend another seminar or gather some more tchotchkes

Also held during RSA, but not part of it, are the SC Magazine 2012 Awards. These are February 28 Intercontinental Hotel on 888 Howard Street (just down the block from RSA Conference 2012 and the Moscone Convention Center) in San Francisco.

To view some of the finalists for the SC Magazine Awards 2012 -

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/11/sc-magazine-awards-2012-finalist.html or a comprehensive list at http://www.scmagazineus.com/finalists/section/2386/.

Free Pass

For information on acquiring a free pass for the exhibitors hall - http://blog.proofpoint.com/2011/11/free-rsa-security-expo-2012-passes

Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization Meeting During RSA

Coinciding with RSA, on February 23-24, the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (www.AMTSO.org) will be having a members meeting. According to their website, `The Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO) is as an international non-profit association that focuses on the addressing the global need for improvement in the objectivity, quality and relevance of anti-malware testing methodologies. AMTSO membership is open to academics, reviewers, publications, testers and vendors, subject to guidelines determined by AMTSO. The site is also a great resource for free documents on testing guidelines and best practices.

AV-Test Product Review and Certification Report – Q4 2011, PC Magazine Best 2012 Internet Security Suites, Top Products from AV-comparatives.org

During November and December 2011, AV-Test (www.AV-Test.org) tested twenty-three consumer and eight internet security products in the areas of protection, repair and usability. The highest score possible in each category was 6.0. The test was on Windows 7. The top 10 products and the total score of these areas is contained in the table below. You’ll have to go to their web site for the individual scores and to download free one page reports on each of the companies. Some consistency between the av-test.org and av-comparatives.org organization results. You won't find the total of the three categories on the av-test.org site. Their summary report is sorted alphabetically.

Those internet security products in the top ten were: Kaspersky Internet Security 2012, BitDefender Internet Security 2012 , F-Secure Internet Security 2012 , G Data: Internet Security 2012, Norton Internet Security 2012 , AVG Internet Security 2012 , AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2012 , Avira Internet Security 2012 , Panda Internet Security 2012 , and Trend Micro Titanium Maximum Security 2012.

www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/novdec-2011/

Where the product was reviewed, the 4th column contains the score from PC Magazine for Best Internet Security Suites 2012. Webroot, while receiving 4.5 out of 5.0 from PC Magazine, only scored a total of 11.5 from AV-test, finishing 21st.The only consumer product failing to be certified, meaning it scored below 11.0 total, was Total Defense Internet Security 2011 with a score of 8.5.

kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html

www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2373529,00.asp

The fifth column contains ratings from AV-Comparatives.org AV-Comparatives Summary Report – 2011. This is a must view report, running 129 pages http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/01/av-comparatives-summary-report-2011.html ESET also received a Top Rated from this organization, but only ranked 22nd in the AV-test ratings.










About AV-Test.org http://www.av-test.org

The AV-TEST Institute is a leading international and independent service provider in the fields of IT security and anti-virus research.
The aim of the research work carried out by AV-TEST is to directly detect the latest malware, to analyze it using state-of-the-art methods and to inform their customers of the top-quality results obtained.

About AV-Comparatives.ort http://www.av-comparatives.org

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.

Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perform, and to download copies of their reports.

Webroot Kills E-mail Security Service, Plans End-Point Offensive

Webroot notified its US resellers on around January 18 that it intended to exit the e-mail security service business. This is in favor of an aggressive endpoint security offensive. This offensive will be spearheaded by a new anti-malware solution for businesses. This was according to a letter viewed by CRN.

"Webroot is exiting the e-mail security business. We will not accept new business orders or renewals for this service," the company stated in the letter.

http://www.crn.com/news/security/232500092/webroot-kills-e-mail-security-service-plans-end-point-offensive.htm

Webroot moved quickly. According to a January 19 CRN article, they have sold their archiving business to Sonian. Sonian will add about 1,000 customers as a result of the transaction. Financial terms weren’t given.

http://www.crn.com/news/security/232500166/sonian-buys-webroot-e-mail-archiving-business.htm

Webroot’s new business anti-malware product line, will be based on the Webroot SecureAnywhere consumer offering. The anti-malware business solution will have Webroot going against larger anti-malware competitors such Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, and Sophos. The product will be going into beta in February, it appears.

Some Work For Webroot to Do

Exciting stuff. The 800 pound gorillas in the industry will have a new competitor in the business space. However, Webroot may have some work to do regarding this new product, whether it’s improving the scan engine, extending protection to the cloud, improving heuristics, whatever. Below are some results from leading test organizations. The tests took place in the latter half of 2011.

Virus Bulletin – Failed to receive a VB100 award in the December 11 test on Windows 7. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=55

AV-Test.org – Passed the Nov/Dec test on Windows 7. However, its scores (out of 6) weren’t stellar. 4.0 for Protection, 3.5 for Repair, and 4.0 for Usability.
http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/novdec-2011/

AV-Test.org – Webroot came in 17th overall in the August through November Whole Product “Real-World” Dynamic Protection Test.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/dyn/wpdt2011_2_en.pdf

AV-Comparatives.org – Anti-Virus Comparative Summary Report 2011. In 9 tests, Webroot received on Adv+ score for performance (AV), an Adv score for the removal test, and Std for performance (suite). Webroot received Tested or N.A. on the remaining tests.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/summary/summary2011.pdf

AV-Comparatives.org – In the Anti-Virus Comparative, Malware Removal Test (December), Webroot came in 7th out of 18 overall with an Advanced (2 stars out of 3) rating.

http://www.av-comparatives.org/images/stories/test/removal/avc_removal_2011.pdf

There are other tests on the www.av-comparatives.org website, as well.

While positive reviews from PC Magazine are great, businesses pay more attention to 3rd party test results than consumers do. Also, other competitors have been aggressive in moving scanning and heuristic activity to the cloud. Webroots products were the recommended/preferred product of Best Buy's Geek Squad for awhile.

PC Magazine gave Webroot SecureAnywhere Complete 4.5 stars out of 5 as its top consumer product.

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html

PC Magazine also gave 4.5 stars to SecureAnywhere Complete Antivirus 2012. Both products received Editors Choice designations from PC Magazine. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-antivirus-software-2012-pc.html


About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.

Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perform, and to download copies of reports.

www.av-comparatives.org

Symantec Sued for Scareware Tactics - January 2012

Sometimes marketing tactics can be a bit too aggressive for people. Washington state resident James Gross sued Symantec earlier in January. In the lawsuit against Symantec, he is claiming that Symantec offers customers a free, non-diagnostic scan that fraudulently detects critical issues on people's computers. The scan offers to fix many of these issues free. However, it then prompts the consumer to pay system tune-ups to clean out the rest of the errors. Products in question – PC Tools Registry Mechanic, PC Tools Performance, Toolkit, and Norton Utilities. www.pctools.com is owned by Symantec.

According to the complaint, “Symantec intentionally designed its Scareware to invariably report, in an extremely ominous manner, that harmful errors, privacy risks, and other computer problems exist on the user's PC, regardless of the real condition of the consumer's computer."

In its response, Symantec stated, "Symantec does not believe the lawsuit has merit and will vigorously defend the case. The Norton and PC Tools solutions at issue are designed to improve the system performance of our customers’ devices in terms of speed, maintain the health of their machines, and protect our customers’ information.…. Several independent third parties have tested and reviewed these products very favorably, verifying the effectiveness of their functionality."

Included in the Forbes article is the full case - Case5:12-cv-00154-HRL Document1 filed 01/10/12 (filed in US District Court, San Jose (CA) Division.

I went to www.download.com (CNET) and did a search on “free registry cleaner” for Windows devices. There were 721 products that showed on the list. The first three pages of products had 5 star ratings from the site (sorted by editor rating). One of the two adverts on the bottom of the web page was from www.pctools.com. “Free Registry Scan. Registry Cleaner Software. Try Now!”

Take these offers with a grain of salt. In addition, don’t click on any pop-up offers telling you that they can speed up your PC or that you have been infected by malware.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/01/11/lawsuit-claims-symantec-scareware-warns-of-fake-threats-to-sell-upgrades/

January 2012 – Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant, June through December 2011

Virus Bulletin has released their latest RAP Averages Quadrant, representing April 2011 through October 2011 data. The top 10 (some eyeballing necessary):

1. Emsisoft
2. Bkis
3. Coranti
4. TrustPort
5. eScan
6. Avira Pro
7. BullGuard
8. BitDefender
9. Avira Free
10. Lavasoft

All of these achieved greater than 90% on Reactive Detection and Proactive Detection. Congrats! There was turnover in the latest test as five companies were replaced in the top 10.

The top 10 in their April 2011 through October timeframe:

1. Bkis
2. Coranti
3. TrustPort
4. BullGuard
5. Qihoo
6. F-secure
7. G Data
8. Kaspersky
9. Nifty
10. eScan

McAfee and Sophos have to be disappointed, again. However, neither Symantec nor Trend Micro are present on this grid. PC Tools, owned by Symantec, was. What’s with Kingsoft Advanced (the lowest) and Rising? These two were at the bottom again.

The relative performance of vendors can best be viewed by looking at the RAP Averages Quadrant chart at

http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index

Subscribers to Virus Bulletin's publications have access to more details on the results.

RAP Averages Quadrant

This test measures products' detection rates across four distinct sets of malware samples. The first three test sets comprise malware first seen in each of the three weeks prior to product submission. These measure how quickly product developerhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifs and labs react to the steady flood of new malware emerging every day across the worhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifld. A fourth test set consists of malware samples first seen in the week after product submission.

About Virus Bulletin

Virus Bulletin started in 1989 as a magazine dedicated to providing PC users with a regular source of intelligence about computer malware - its prevention, detection and removal. And how to recover programs and data following an attack.

http://www.virusbtn.com/index

Conversation with Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill

Federal Trade Commissioner Julie Brill spoke in front of about 80 individuals munching on burritos (important proof of attendance point) at Stanford Law School on January 12. The Commissioner spoke about the Federal Trade Commission's initiatives to protect consumer privacy. This talk was part of “National Data Privacy Day 2012”. It was sponsored by Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School.

One of the significant developments during 2011, according to Brill, was the growing awareness of big data from multiple sources being pulled together to provide information on consumers. Brill called for vendors to “institute privacy by design.” “Should we be collecting this data?” Brill asked. She discussed the consumers’ right to know information is being collected, the right to access it, and the right to collect it.

Do not track mechanisms have been and are being developed by the industry itself, not the government. “To the extent promises are made and not lived up…is something we could take a look at and have”, according to Brill. She felt that consumers should be given information about what is happening to their data.

The most significant action Brill felt the FTC took in 2011 was the proposed settlement with Facebook. “For the first time we are calling on companies by decree to institute a comprehensive privacy programs."She talked about how audit for the next 20 years have been established as part of the settlement.

Brill also touched briefly on the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. “We’re also proposing rule modifications”, she said.

With respect to privacy from the government, Brill said, “We focus on the use of information about consumers in a commercial focus.“

In the international arena, Brill said that the FTC works a great deal with overseas counterparts, in a number of different areas, including enforcement, competition, and privacy. She felt that the FTC’s role in international privacy has grown. “It’s very important to us to have lines of communication with other regulators”, according to Brill.

Other Developments

• There is a draft report being finalized by the commission regarding privacy. Brill said that a number of comments on the draft so far (hundreds).
• Regarding the mobile space - More attention will be paid to this space in the coming year. “Do consumers understand what they are being told?” Brill asked.
• Layered notices – Brill felt that there was a need to give consumers information “in consumer language, simplified notice rather than legalese."
• “For the first time we are calling on companies by decree to institute a comprehensive privacy programs.”

The Stop Online Piracy Act, proposed by Texan Republican Lamar Smith in late October, has received a lot of attention in the press lately. It wasn’t talked about during the discussion.

About FTC Commissioner Julie Brill

Julie Brill was sworn in as a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission April 6, 2010, to a term that expires on September 25, 2016. Brill has worked actively on issues most affecting today’s consumers. These include protecting consumers’ privacy, encouraging appropriate advertising substantiation, guarding consumers from financial fraud, and maintaining competition in industries involving high tech and health care.

AV-Comparatives Summary Report 2011 – Kaspersky Product of the Year

AV-Comparatives has released their 129 page summary report (anti-virus comparative). Product of the Year award went to Kaspersky who received Advanced + in all nine categories. Top Rated product recognitions for 2011 went to Avira, BitDefender, Eset, F-Secure, and Kaspersky. If for some reason, Kaspersky is unable to fulfill its duties as the Product of the Year….. F-Secure received Advanced+ in seven of the nine categories. Twenty companies are in this extensive report.

The report also gave recognition to individual companies for - on demand protection, proactive on demand detection, false positives, on demand scanning speed, and overall performance (low system impact). There are ~4 page sections dedicated to each product in the AV Comparatives Summary Report 2011, as well.

2011 was a good year for Kaspersky. They continued to catch up to Trend Micro in terms of total revenue. On January 5 of this year, Kaspersky and Eugene Kaspersky were named a Channelnomics 2011 Influencers Award Winner in Security http://channelnomics.com/2012/01/05/channelnomics-2011-influencers-awards-%E2%80%93-part-3/3/

Kaspersky received 3.5 stars out of 5 from Neil Rubenking and PC Magazine for their Internet Security Suite 2012. http://kensek.blogspot.com/2011/08/best-internet-security-suites-2012-pc.html Kaspersky offers a number of solutions for both home users and businesses.

Kaspersky scored highly in the just released Virus Bulletin RAP Averages Quadrant June through December 2011. http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index . Bkis and Emsisoft were the top performers in this test. A minus for them – they failed to receive a VB 100 Award in a pair of tests in 2011 http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=15

Symantec/Norton - Whoops in Latest VB100

Norton AV received a VB100 award in April 2010, didn't participate in a few tests and then failed to receive a VB100 in December 2011 with Norton Internet Security.
http://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/archive/vendor?id=84 . The company had had a run of almost 10 years of VB100 awards that ended in August, 2009.

About AV-Comparatives

AV-Comparatives is an Austrian Non-Profit-Organization, which provides independent Anti-Virus software tests free to the public.

Go to the AV-comparatives website for complete details about the organization, the many tests they perforNm, and to download copies of this report.



www.av-comparatives.org

Security Acquisitions 2011

Interesting slide show by Channel Insider on the major security acquisitions 2011. No explanation for the order. It’s neither alphabetical nor by value of the acquisition (many of the values not provided).

Dell purchasing SecureWorks, Thoma Bravo acquiring TripWire and Blue Coat Systems (the guys at Thomas Bravo were busy with these two and also have SonicWall), Symantec buying Clearwell, IBM acquiring Q1, McAfee buying Nitro Security and Sentrigo, Sophos buying Astaro, Wave Systems buying Safend, and GFI buying Monitis.

http://www.channelinsider.com/c/a/Security/Top-10-Security-Acquisitions-of-2011-742914/

SC Magazine had their own list in the Reboot 2011 December issue. Ones they had that didn’t overlap with Channel Insider – Check Point acquiring Dynasec, EMC acquiring Netwitness, HP and Autonomy (now that got a lot of news!), IBM with Platform Computing, Algorithmics, and i2 (big companies have to do something with all that cash). Imation purchasing IronKey, Oracle acquiring RightNow and Endeca Technologies (what’s a couple of billion $ here and there), redhat purchasing Gluster, and VMware acquiring Shavlik Technologies.

You can pick your reasons for the acquisitions.

• Broadening a security product portfolio.
• Buying over making.
• Innovation coming from smaller companies.
• Seeing good technologies being poorly managed.
• Perceived synergy.
• Buying share.
• Having a lot of money in the bank.

There were also smaller acquisitions by other security vendors in 2011 but the above seem to be the larger ones. Look for more of the above to occur in 2012. Discussions on the 2011 initial public offering (IPO) market will be a separate blog. 2011 was not a stellar year for IPO’s.

It’s a new year. The RSA Conference 2012 is coming up in late February. Scoping out companies and intercompany bonding to take place over drinks at the W Hotel across from Moscone Center. This is the place to hang. For a bit more discretion, the Clift.

http://www.rsaconference.com/events/2012/usa/

What Would Avast Software’s Valuation be as a Public Company?

On December 20, Avast Software filed with the SEC for an initial public offering (IPO) of $200 million in common shares. UBS Limited and Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. are acting as joint bookrunning managers and Pacific Crest Securities LLC, Morgan Keegan & Company, Inc. and Macquarie Capital (USA) Inc. are acting as co-managers for the proposed IPO. Avast promotes that they are protecting over 146 million active users and 189 million registered users. Nice installed based to talk about for an initial public offering The freemium model covers a substantial number of these users.

A Quick But Often Used Valuation Methodology for an IPO

In the interest of brevity, methods of valuing a company for IPO purpses include - Book Value, Internal Rate of Return (IRR) Profit/Sales Multiple, P/E (Price/Earnings ratio), Dunn-Rankin formula, free cash flow. In the link to the attached article, the author also talks about the asset approach, the earnings approach, and the market comparison approach. Discounted cash flow analysis would be great, but does involve a fair amount of conjecturing.

So, let’s use the price multiple approach for an Avast IPO. For the six months ended June 30, Avast reported a profit of $23 million. This was an increase from $4.4 million during the same period last year. Revenue increased 87% to $37.9 million. Double that revenue to annualize it, and assume a little growth over the second half of the year. Instead of $75.8 million, let’s say $80 million. Their total 2010 revenue was $48.5 million. This is probably still conservative since their first halve 2010 revenue was $20.2 million.

From an earlier blog, Symantec paid a revenue multiple of 5x and 4.8x for PC Tools and Message Labs, respectively in 2008. In 2009, McAfee paid a revenue multiple of 4.9x for its acquisition of MX Logic. These were all security acquisitions.

Different industries have different price multiples. The risk is different. Margins are different. A software company isn’t a steel com company, nor is it an appliance company.

Intel’s acquisition of McAfee wouldn’t be a valid comparison because McAfee obtains a substantial portion of its revenue from appliances. Ditto for any multiple that could be back calculated from the Thomas Bravo December 8 $1.3 billion proposed acquisition of Blue Coat Systems. Blue Coat obtains a substantial amount of revenue from its appliances. Bravo paid a 48% premium over the previous day’s stock closing price and about 19 percent off the highs of Blue Coat’s share price in January. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/thoma-bravo-acquires-blue-coat-systems-for-1-3-billion/

And the Answer is

Using the 5x figure for Avast Software, suggests a total valuation of $400 million. This may not be unreasonable give their rapid growth. The paperwork filed with the SEC lays out a number of potential risks. But that's what this paperwork is for.

Again, the above is crude. There are multiple better methods. It does provide a rough estimate. The company is generating cash. They are profitable. As of June, they had about $85 million in the bank. Let the underwriting number crunching continue.

For a May update 

http://kensek.blogspot.com/2012/05/avast-gradually-moving-forward-with-ipo.html

To view Avast’s F-1 form filed with the SEC, go to http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1537133/000104746911010159/a2206699zf-1.htm

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