German Security Company Avira Acquired SocialShield.
“It is Avira’s mission that our users feel free to make new friends, share pictures, and conduct business on the Web without worries or concerns about their safety,” said Travis Witteveen, COO Markets & Operations of Avira. “Avira is broadening our security focus from safe-guarding computers to now protecting the people who use them, and that requires us to look beyond viruses and worms and Trojans. The acquisition of SocialShield not only brings child safety technology into Avira’s portfolio, but it also enhances our knowledge of social networking security and our awareness of the risks within the ‘cloud’,” said Sascha Beyer, COO Products & Technology of Avira.
“We are thrilled to become a part of Avira,” said George Garrick, President and CEO of SocialShield. “Avira has an exciting and highly complementary existing product line and future roadmap that merges well with ours, and there is also a great fit of corporate culture and vision. With Avira’s existing user footprint, this merger will rapidly accelerate SocialShield’s product leadership as well as give us an entre into many new countries”.
Avira is located in Tettnang, near Lake Constance.The company has several locations in Germany and partnerships in Europe, Asia and the Americas.Avira primarily offers professional solutions for cross-system protection of networks on various levels.
SocialShield is the leading cloud-based social network monitoring service.SocialShield gives parents affordable, easy-to-use, state-of-the-art tools to help them enhance Internet safety for their children in the online environment. SocialShield scans, analyzes and alerts parents to suspicious activity on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Formspring, MySpace, Google+ and others. The service has won numerous technology industry endorsements as well as two Congressional Recognition awards for its role in online child safety.
