After having sold, last year, its RAV antivirus technology to software giant Microsoft, Romanian company GeCAD is now supplying specialists to its former Russian and German competitors, which decided to open research labs in Bucharest.
About 12 antivirus and information security specialists have left GECAD so far, choosing to work for German company H+BDEV and for Russia's Kaspersky Labs instead. Moreover, one of them was even appointed general manager of the German company, and another Romanian specialist is running the office that H+BDEV opened in Bucharest at the end of last week under the name of Avira Romania.
The new business, Avira, will be more than a simple research lab in the field of IT security, Mihai Anghel, the company's general manager, told Ziarul Financiar in an exclusive interview. "This is an investment relying both on the management and software knowledge of Romanian specialists. This is a complete business, not just a lab," Anghel stated.
Market sources put the initial investment at 100,000 euros. The company has German capital and will make antivirus programmes, but also a broader range of security solutions. The company has ten employees for the beginning. Anghel said he would provide more details in several days.
H+BDEV is not the first producer of antivirus and security solutions to locate part of its operations in Romania. One of the main market players, Russian company Kaspersky Labs, has recently opened a research and development lab in Bucharest.
"Early this year, SC Kaspersky Laborator SRL began to operate in Romania, aiming to consolidate the range of data security products made under the Kaspersky brand. Originally, the company was supposed to be a nucleus of application research&development in the field of IT systems security, but will also bring new ideas and technologies on the market, enabling us to provide our customers with improved and easy-to-use solutions, both on Unix compatible systems and on Windows," says general manager Iulian Ursu.
Ursu would not reveal the investment made by Kaspersky in Romania or the size of the team working in Bucharest.
The twelve specialists supplied by GeCAD to its former competitors were preceded by those that left the company last year to go to Redmond and work for Microsoft. GeCAD sold the RAV Antivirus to Bill Gates' company last June, waiving its right to develop another antivirus programme. On the other hand, the Bucharest-based company is now distributing the products of another big IT security market player, Japanese company Trend Micro.
After RAV was sold to Microsoft, the Romanian market was left with only one local antivirus technology producer - Softwin, which owns the BitDefender software line and is constantly expanding on the international markets.
iuliana.cerchez@zf.ro
