AVG Adds Senior Team to Form Global Strategic Alliances Division

AVG Technologies, developers of the worlds most popular free anti-virus software, today announced the formation of a Global Strategic Alliances (GSA) group focused on corporate development and licensing initiatives, as well as strategic partnerships. The GSA group will offer AVGs security technology into new areas where it can protect people and businesses from malware, phishing scams, social networking hacks and other online harm.

Core Facts

GSAs main objective will be to increase corporate value and revenue by developing and growing AVGs strategic partner channel and inbound licensing, as well as assisting with merger and acquisition objectives.
The GSA group will focus on building strategic relationships with technology, social media, e-commerce, and online gaming companies, as well as ISPs and OEMs. AVG has already established strategic alliances with companies such as Microsoft, Yahoo! Inc., Cisco, Virgin Digital Help, Kaseya, WatchGuard, and GFI Software.
AVGs new Global Strategic Alliances group will be led by senior vice president, Rocco Donnino, who joined AVG from McAfee, where he was responsible for global OEM sales and strategic partnerships in the US and EMEA. Donnino has previously held executive sales and business development positions at Secure Computing, Shavlik Technologies, and SurfControl, as well as Microsoft.
Also joining the GSA group is Tom Buoniello, Senior Solutions Architect, who comes to AVG from Symantec and Microsoft, where he was part of the product management and leadership teams, where he helped define the technology and development strategy
Donnino and his GSA team will leverage their combined expertise in sales, strategic business planning and corporate and OEM development to deliver strong and sustainable revenue gains for AVG as it heads towards an initial public offering.
Through GSAs new alliance program, partnerships will have the benefit to integrate with AVGs advanced technologies such as: o Safe Search and Web Security: Protecting Web 2.0 threats through AVGs Link Scanner and Toolbar o Malicious Threat Data feed: Real time URL/web threat data feeds o Anti-malware protection: SDK, Private label and co-branding capabilities of our advanced AV technology to protect against malware infected file transfers o Microscanner: Rapid analysis to ensure that a machine is clean before accessing social networks and websites o Identity Protection: Behavioral protection to provide DETECTION and REMOVAL of designer Trojans, bots, and rootkits in real-time

Quotes

The security landscape is changing every day and AVG is excited to bring our brand of total security protection to the forefront in 2010 through initiatives like the Global Strategic Alliances effort. Its not enough to offer protection for a computer and walk away thinking the job is done. The bad guys are trying a million different ways to compromise personal information, corporate data and anything they can get their hands on. AVG is committed to providing security coverage where our customers work and play in order to give them peace of mind

J.R. Smith, CEO, AVG Technologies

AVG is looking at security with a slightly different perspective in order to protect people and not just computers. These strategic partnerships surrounding social media, e-commerce, online gaming, technology, ISPs and OEM bundling opportunities will be a core focus for AVGs new GSA Division in 2010.

Rocco Donnino, SVP of Global Strategic Alliances, AVG Technologies