I have exciting news to share with our Community. Webroot has entered into an agreement to be acquired by Carbonite, a leader in cloud-based data protection for businesses. We expect the deal to close within the first calendar quarter of 2019.
I believe this is great news for you as a Webroot customer and advocate.
When surveyed, SMBs and MSPs consistently name endpoint security and backup/data recovery services among their top priorities. We see great potential in bringing a coordinated solution set to market that becomes your go-to security platform. Whether you buy from Webroot or a trusted channel partner.
Likewise for consumers, the combined Webroot and Carbonite will better protect you, your family and your most sensitive data.
Carbonite shares a similar vision, solution philosophy, commitment to the customer and company culture. Both companies focus on easy-to-use and deploy, cloud-based solutions that address the complicated cybersecurity issues facing individuals and business every day. Additionally, both companies pride themselves on excellent customer care and support.
Our commitment to you and a high level of customer service during this transition will not change. In fact, you’ll continue to hear from and interact with the normal Webroot Community team alongside product and product marketing managers that listen and respond here on a regular basis.
While we must operate as independent companies until the transaction closes, after that stage we look forward to sharing many more detailed updates with you.
If you have any questions during this transition process, please comment on this post or reach out to your Community team.
Mike Potts
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Wouldn’t it be nice if just one of these times we could buy stock in one or the other companies before they make an acquisition. Think about how much of their success has been built on the backs of MSP’s.
Yet another one of my favourite products being bought up. I hope it doesn't change I love Webroot and their products.
It most definitely will mean change. Often times these changes are not for the best. I remain hopeful.
Is this good news?? I hope so.
Judging from the customer reviews at the end of this PCMag Review of Carbonite, I have my fears though. It was not least because of similar reviews to these ones that, when I was looking for an effective Cloud Data Backup service almost 9 years ago, I decided to steer clear of Carbonite.
So...fingers crossed...
Hoping this is good and not bad news for Webroot.
Judging from the customer reviews at the end of this PCMag Review of Carbonite, I have my fears though. It was not least because of similar reviews to these ones that, when I was looking for an effective Cloud Data Backup service almost 9 years ago, I decided to steer clear of Carbonite.
So...fingers crossed...
Hoping this is good and not bad news for Webroot.
We are still business as usual. We must operate as separate companies until the transaction closes sometime in the first calendar quarter of 2019. In addition to the post from Mike above, feel free to read the announcement here from Carbonite, on the Webroot blog, as well as our press release.
While we must operate as independent companies until the transaction closes, after that stage we look forward to sharing many more detailed updates with you.
All the best to Webroot!
Hopefully after the transaction closes, changes will not affect the customers too much.
One thing I'll say though: the CEO of Carbonite is a very interesting guy.
https://medium.com/authority-magazine/i-am-living-proof-of-the-american-dream-with-mohamad-ali-ceo-of-carbonite-851f0bd33c90
https://medium.com/authority-magazine/i-am-living-proof-of-the-american-dream-with-mohamad-ali-ceo-of-carbonite-851f0bd33c90
I'll play it by ear... 😉 ...for the time being.
I've had such terrible experiences with Carbonite, I'm already looking at alternatives.
Interesting. I hadn't heard of them until this announcement by Webroot, today. What does it bode for us WSA users? Business as usual, methinks not!
I do not think this is good news at all.
The press release made absolutely no mention of Home users, just the business side of things.
If any of you think us non-business users have been getting the shaft lately, like me, just wait.
This will not end well.
And only 618 million?
The press release made absolutely no mention of Home users, just the business side of things.
If any of you think us non-business users have been getting the shaft lately, like me, just wait.
This will not end well.
And only 618 million?
Time will tell although I'm not overly optimistic but willing to sit tight.
This is a personal opinion and not an official response or statement from Webroot.
I work on the Consumer side of the business as many of you no doubt know and the repeated mentions about business and none about consumer were not lost on us.
It has to be looked at in the context of the changing market for security products - fewer consumers are purchasing computers with user-maintained operating systems like Windows, MacOs and Linux. Sales of these have been on the decline for some time.
For consumers there is a shift towards smart phones, tablets and managed light operating systems like Chromebooks and Windows 10S - just go into your local computer hardware store and look at what is being promoted on the shelves. Many of these are challenging or impossible to provide traditional antivirus for given the constraints in which apps run on those platforms.
It is a natural consequence for any profit led business in this environment to look to both diversify the consumer offering, an example being the recent launch of WiFi Security, and increase revenue from the business market where full operating systems remain the norm.
Carbonite and Webroot both have consumer offerings which make a significant proportion of revenue.
That aspect of the business is not going away.
Where the strategic partnership makes particular sense though is for small businesses where a single provider can offer you endpoint protection, network protection and business continuity in the form of backup and restoration.
For business users catastrophic data loss can literally mean businesses going from profitable and growing companies to shutting down completely overnight. This is not an abstract concern, it has happened several times - even to multi-million pound businesses.
Small companies rarely have IT departments to manage backups and antivirus so a combined offering that takes care of this for you sounds like a powerful proposition in that market.
Announcements from public companies are always tailored towards the stock market and I would expect the announcement to focus on where the purchase offers greatest potential for growth. Investors will want to be re-assured that this is a decision that makes sense for the long term growth of the business.
It is clear to me - whilst growth in business markets continues to be a key goal - consumer is not going away and we will continue to work to diversify offerings to meet changing user needs. The larger business may well offer even better opportunities to offer integrated and simple solutions to consumers as well as business customers.
How many home users do you know who truly have a robust backup strategy to protect again hardware failure, fire or theft of data? Do your parents? Siblings? Friends?
It is far too soon to consider product changes, much less announce them, but it is not hard to imagine how each companies products may be complementary in both the consumer and business contexts. Fundamentally I think that is why Carbonite choose to make this purchase.
Ultimately there is great potential for the acquisition to be a benefit, Carbonite reportedly have a very strong customer focus and similar ethos.
Give us time and the benefit of the doubt. We are still Webroot, we still care about all our users - consumer and business.
Edit: Updated the word "traditional" to "user-maintained" operating systems to distinguish from fully managed systems like Chromebooks.
I work on the Consumer side of the business as many of you no doubt know and the repeated mentions about business and none about consumer were not lost on us.
It has to be looked at in the context of the changing market for security products - fewer consumers are purchasing computers with user-maintained operating systems like Windows, MacOs and Linux. Sales of these have been on the decline for some time.
For consumers there is a shift towards smart phones, tablets and managed light operating systems like Chromebooks and Windows 10S - just go into your local computer hardware store and look at what is being promoted on the shelves. Many of these are challenging or impossible to provide traditional antivirus for given the constraints in which apps run on those platforms.
It is a natural consequence for any profit led business in this environment to look to both diversify the consumer offering, an example being the recent launch of WiFi Security, and increase revenue from the business market where full operating systems remain the norm.
Carbonite and Webroot both have consumer offerings which make a significant proportion of revenue.
That aspect of the business is not going away.
Where the strategic partnership makes particular sense though is for small businesses where a single provider can offer you endpoint protection, network protection and business continuity in the form of backup and restoration.
For business users catastrophic data loss can literally mean businesses going from profitable and growing companies to shutting down completely overnight. This is not an abstract concern, it has happened several times - even to multi-million pound businesses.
Small companies rarely have IT departments to manage backups and antivirus so a combined offering that takes care of this for you sounds like a powerful proposition in that market.
Announcements from public companies are always tailored towards the stock market and I would expect the announcement to focus on where the purchase offers greatest potential for growth. Investors will want to be re-assured that this is a decision that makes sense for the long term growth of the business.
It is clear to me - whilst growth in business markets continues to be a key goal - consumer is not going away and we will continue to work to diversify offerings to meet changing user needs. The larger business may well offer even better opportunities to offer integrated and simple solutions to consumers as well as business customers.
How many home users do you know who truly have a robust backup strategy to protect again hardware failure, fire or theft of data? Do your parents? Siblings? Friends?
It is far too soon to consider product changes, much less announce them, but it is not hard to imagine how each companies products may be complementary in both the consumer and business contexts. Fundamentally I think that is why Carbonite choose to make this purchase.
Ultimately there is great potential for the acquisition to be a benefit, Carbonite reportedly have a very strong customer focus and similar ethos.
Give us time and the benefit of the doubt. We are still Webroot, we still care about all our users - consumer and business.
Edit: Updated the word "traditional" to "user-maintained" operating systems to distinguish from fully managed systems like Chromebooks.
I'm deeply concerned as well with the announcement. I read the documents and was on the conference calls. This looks to be a better deal for Carbonite than it is for Webroot. They've seen flat sales for two years straight with little to no growth. Webroot has triple (That's 3X) the business clients that Carbonite has.
This leads to my comment below.
Carbonite's reputation and name brand isn't exactly all shiny and roses. They are pretty much like the Borg. They'll "aquire" a company, rape and pillage it's IP/resources/staff, screw it to high hell, raise prices and then move onto another acquisition. They've done that with Mozy and EVault (two of it's other acquisitions). Investors of Carbonite still wonder why all the Mozy subs haven't moved to Carbonite. It's because they didn't want to deal with them.
At the end of the conference call, one large investor was super excited over this. Since he is a number cruncher and money maker, he had no clue who Webroot was. He just said at the end of the call that Carbonite hit this one out of the park and got a huge deal for what little they paid. 3X multiple of yearly revenue.
@freydrew @akim So what's going to happen to the C-Level execs now? I'm guessing Mike will ride off into the sunset, your CFO will take over operations of Webroot and of course our beloved George Anderson comes with the deal. He's part of the furniture with you all, he's so great. 🙂 LOL
And all the private venture firms get their huge payoffs and onto the next.
Very nervous here at our MSP organization. We're an existing partner with Carbonite and it's NOT a good relationship.
This leads to my comment below.
Carbonite's reputation and name brand isn't exactly all shiny and roses. They are pretty much like the Borg. They'll "aquire" a company, rape and pillage it's IP/resources/staff, screw it to high hell, raise prices and then move onto another acquisition. They've done that with Mozy and EVault (two of it's other acquisitions). Investors of Carbonite still wonder why all the Mozy subs haven't moved to Carbonite. It's because they didn't want to deal with them.
At the end of the conference call, one large investor was super excited over this. Since he is a number cruncher and money maker, he had no clue who Webroot was. He just said at the end of the call that Carbonite hit this one out of the park and got a huge deal for what little they paid. 3X multiple of yearly revenue.
And all the private venture firms get their huge payoffs and onto the next.
Very nervous here at our MSP organization. We're an existing partner with Carbonite and it's NOT a good relationship.
Thanks, @pstonethompson , for your helpful and long post.
Actually, I have no problem with the idea of merging a data security firm with a cybersecurity firm. That's logical and in itself potentially a good thing.
My problem is that, from the time that I did my research about Cloud data storage back in 2010, I have become painfully aware of the appalling customer reviews regarding Carbonite on the internet (please note that I am not talking about the review articles written by IT pros on those online websites but rather the shocking customer reviews that follow). See for example this and this and this.
Webroot, by contrast, generally gets rave customer reviews.
Do I want my cybersecurity to be taken over by a company that attracts such appalling customer feedback?? Look particularly at those customer reviews that talk about the acid test of any data storage company: customers who needed to restore their data. See what they have to say.
Yes, I am needless to say fearful of this acquisition, but of course am open to being reassured (EDIT: unfortunately, the post immediately above this one does not help 😞 ).
Actually, I have no problem with the idea of merging a data security firm with a cybersecurity firm. That's logical and in itself potentially a good thing.
My problem is that, from the time that I did my research about Cloud data storage back in 2010, I have become painfully aware of the appalling customer reviews regarding Carbonite on the internet (please note that I am not talking about the review articles written by IT pros on those online websites but rather the shocking customer reviews that follow). See for example this and this and this.
Webroot, by contrast, generally gets rave customer reviews.
Do I want my cybersecurity to be taken over by a company that attracts such appalling customer feedback?? Look particularly at those customer reviews that talk about the acid test of any data storage company: customers who needed to restore their data. See what they have to say.
Yes, I am needless to say fearful of this acquisition, but of course am open to being reassured (EDIT: unfortunately, the post immediately above this one does not help 😞 ).
This should be interesting. I hope that older operating systems like Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 are still supported after the acquisition.
Did anyone else notice that the CEO of Webroot has only posted once in the community and only has one badge. Makes one wonder how much he's paying attention to what's going on here.
Did anyone else notice that the CEO of Webroot has only posted once in the community and only has one badge. Makes one wonder how much he's paying attention to what's going on here.
This leads to my comment below.
Carbonite's reputation and name brand isn't exactly all shiny and roses. They are pretty much like the Borg. They'll "aquire" a company, rape and pillage it's IP/resources/staff, screw it to high hell, raise prices and then move onto another acquisition. They've done that with Mozy and EVault (two of it's other acquisitions). Investors of Carbonite still wonder why all the Mozy subs haven't moved to Carbonite. It's because they didn't want to deal with them.
At the end of the conference call, one large investor was super excited over this. Since he is a number cruncher and money maker, he had no clue who Webroot was. He just said at the end of the call that Carbonite hit this one out of the park and got a huge deal for what little they paid. 3X multiple of yearly revenue.
And all the private venture firms get their huge payoffs and onto the next.
Very nervous here at our MSP organization. We're an existing partner with Carbonite and it's NOT a good relationship.
This is really interesting to read. I only found out about the acquisition 30 minutes before this post went live. I honestly don't know much more than anyone here, but from what I can tell, the people that make Webroot what it is are not changing. As such, I don't believe your experience as a customer or partner will change.
Certainly hoping that proves to be true.
As
Time will tell.
Hope this isn't akin to Dell eating SonicWALL and Quest. 2 promising companies that got spit back out when the larger fish swam by (EMC). Dell wasn't even good with SonicWALL while they had them, and forked the firmware with never ending bugs... never came out of beta.
Up for renewals in a month, think i'll play safe with a 1yr renewal as opposed to the usual 3yr.
Good luck Webroot.
Up for renewals in a month, think i'll play safe with a 1yr renewal as opposed to the usual 3yr.
Good luck Webroot.
I would encourage everyone to just wait it out; no need to speculate yet if we should be hearing something by the end of the quarter.
This is really interesting to read. I only found out about the acquisition 30 minutes before this post went live. I honestly don't know much more than anyone here, but from what I can tell, the people that make Webroot what it is are not changing. As such, I don't believe your experience as a customer or partner will change.
Well, considering that I've been on three different threads for the last couple of months about the broken Password Manager, the fact that my experience as a customer isn't expected to change is not exactly heartening. I have to say, this news makes me feel vindicated in my decision to move on to another product.
As has been mentioned more than once, Carbonite has a pretty poor reputation among consumers, and the message about consumers no longer being a part of the "traditional OS market" sounds ominous, from my POV.
I'm a consumer. I'm also an artisan and SBO, and I use desktop workstations to do what I do. The fact that I don't have the budget for enterprise-level purchases is likely to leave me out in the cold here, so I'm taking my custom elsewhere. Just in time, it appears.
Like others, I keep my fingers crossed that this merge does not ruin the company culture of Webroot. It is one of the reasons I use Webroot. Congrats on being acquired, and I hope some of you will make some money on your company stock. Good luck.
I, too, am concerned - as a small business who has had very good relationship with Webroot as a company that produced a product that addressed some failings in other solutions we had in the past. I don't fear the unknown (the future) so much as I am concerned about the trends that we usually see after are merger like this. After the merger Carbonite's influence could be a negative instead of a positive - or honestly vice-versa. One way or the other, the culture of one of the two companies will permeate and change the culture of the other company. I do have optimism that my relationship with Webroot and the effectiveness of their products will continue long into the future.
I thought I did some good research before I purchased this product a few days ago. If I knew about Carbonite I would of thought twice before purchasing. I have read about Carbonite and their customer service issues. Customer service is huge for me. If a company sucks at it then I don't want to be their customer. There are plenty of companies to choose from.
Like previous commenters have said. I will have to wait and see. I for sure am not going to refer anyone until this plays out.
Like previous commenters have said. I will have to wait and see. I for sure am not going to refer anyone until this plays out.
No offense, but it's easy for you to say "wait it out". However, I just renewed a few weeks ago. I did so because Webroot reps told me that older operating systems would be supported. A company like Carbonite isn't going to have the same mentality to continue supporting these. If they do in 6 months, we lose not only the money we paid for 6 months of licensing, but the cost in upgrades we'll incur is rather large. So, yes, I'm really worried about whether Webroot will keep up what they told me just a matter of weeks ago, or did they just say something to get us to renew.
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