Moscow/Utrecht, 22 may 2012 – Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content and threat management solutions, and InfoWatch, a developer of software solutions to monitor and manage information flow, announce they have agreed to finalize the process of splitting the companies into two separate businesses.
According to a recently reached agreement, Kaspersky Lab will sell its stake in InfoWatch, a former subsidiary of Kaspersky Lab, to Natalya Kaspersky.
In February 2012 Kaspersky Lab bought back all the shares in the company belonging to co-founder and former CEO of Kaspersky Lab Natalya Kaspersky, meaning she is no longer a shareholder in Kaspersky Lab.
As a result of these deals, Kaspersky Lab and InfoWatch will become completely independent of each other, with no business links between them, neither in terms of cooperation nor as direct competitors.
Natalya and Eugene Kaspersky co-founded Kaspersky Lab back in 1997. During its 15-year history the company has grown from a family business into the largest privately owned vendor of software security products in the world. The company currently does business in almost 200 countries across the globe, and its technologies provide protection for over 300 million users worldwide.
In 2003 InfoWatch was founded as a subsidiary company to Kaspersky Lab to specialize in the development of solutions to prevent the leakage of confidential information. In 2011 Natalya and Eugene Kaspersky decided to begin the process of systematically separating their jointly built businesses. The first stage of this saw Natalya Kaspersky leave her position as Chairperson of Kaspersky Lab in summer 2011. Since that time Eugene Kaspersky has been the Chairman of the Kaspersky Lab Group and the CEO of Kaspersky Lab company.
Commenting on the conclusion of business relations with Natalya Kaspersky and InfoWatch, Eugene Kaspersky, CEO and co-founder of Kaspersky Lab, said: “Natalya and I built an effective business that grew into one of the biggest IT security companies in the world. Today we are moving in different directions and this is the right time to go our separate ways. I’m thankful to Natalya for her cooperation, in the broadest sense, and wish her success with her future business activities, whatever they may be.”
Natalya Kaspersky, the owner and CEO of InfoWatch, commented on the deal: “I was the person who started the sale of our fine antivirus product. During 18 years of cooperation Eugene and I have established the company, achieved great results on the Russian and international markets, built a chain of partners and developed a wide range of products. But being a person of action I prefer to do business my way. Eugene and I have different ideas on business development and I no longer see a role for myself in the company. I’m planning to further develop InfoWatch and to maintain good relations with the management and employees of Kaspersky Lab.”
© 2012 Kaspersky Lab. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for Kaspersky Lab products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. Kaspersky Lab shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.
About Kaspersky Lab
Kaspersky Lab is the largest antivirus company in Europe. It delivers some of the world’s most immediate protection against IT security threats, including viruses, spyware, crimeware, hackers, phishing, and spam. The company is ranked among the world’s top four vendors of security solutions for endpoint users. Kaspersky Lab products provide superior detection rates and one of the industry’s fastest outbreak response times for home users, SMBs, large enterprises and the mobile computing environment. Kaspersky® technology is also used worldwide inside the products and services of the industry’s leading IT security solution providers. Learn more at
www.kaspersky.com. For the latest on antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-spam and other IT security issues and trends, visit
www.securelist.com.
Kaspersky Lab has launched a new online newsroom, Kaspersky Lab Newsroom Europe (
newsroom.kaspersky.eu/), for journalists throughout Europe. The newsroom is specifically designed to serve many of the media’s most common requests, making it easier for journalists to find product and corporate information, facts and figures, editorial copy, images, videos and audio files, as well as details about the appropriate PR contacts.
Noot voor redacties:
Voor overige informatie kunt u contact opnemen met onderstaande contactpersonen.
Contactgegevens:
Kaspersky Lab
Caroline Breure
Tel. +31 (0)30 – 752 95 00
Caroline.Breure@kaspersky.nl
The Communication Force
Nanda Bechtholt
Tel. +31 (0)23 – 56 56 850
ankevdv@communicationforce.com