NortonLifeLock to acquire Avast in $8.6 billion deal

[Ozaron]

Norton 360 was the worst piece of software I've ever installed, by a long way, and I am concerned that Avast and apparently AVG are now theirs. Luckily not using any of these..

[Tabbykatze]

Sophos have been bought by thoma bravo so they are screwed. It's a real shame. Crowdstrike are very good at detection, not so good at blocking. Cylance I haven't had the misfortune to deal with recently but all they were was marketing, smoke and mirrors a few years ago. Properly full of it.
Defender's main weakness in the corporate world is the seeming biannual inevitability of it screwing up your week with a dodgy update.

The Thoma Bravo acquisition isn't looking great in the short term but Sophos' shortcomings in areas like product management, product direction (some exception for the endpoint systems) and support were starting to show issues long before the acquisition. Intercept X Advanced (with/out EDR) is still an excellent product and if we had the need/money I'd love to have their MTR.

Palo Altos new systems are looking on the up and up but I wouldn't touch Crowdstrike (as their response leaves a lot to be desired as you've pointed out) nor would I touch Cylance (with a turd covered stick might I add).

The only thing I really like about Defender is its growing bilateral integration with Intune...but then again, it's Intune...