Avira closes the B2B umbrella

There was a nasty surprise for the Avira channel partners on November 9th. The German security specialist informed them by email about the imminent discontinuation of the B2B business and the channel partner department. The partners can still activate licenses until December 31, 2020. On the same date, however, all partner contracts will also be terminated, as Avira writes. From January 1, 2022, all licenses will lose their functionality, regardless of the originally set term. The following products are affected:

• Avira Antivirus Pro Business Edition

• Avira Antivirus for Server

• Avira Antivirus for Endpoint

• Avira Antivirus for Small Business

• Avira Exchange Security

Avira confirmed these changes to “heise.de”. Customers will receive a refund for licenses that now expire earlier than planned. “Customers and / or partners with licenses that extend beyond the service end date have the option of receiving reimbursements either by migrating to Avira Prime or by refunding money,” it says. The decision to phase out business solutions was made in 2019 and has been in progress since then. In the future, Avira would like to concentrate on end customer and OEM solutions. In addition, the security company emphasizes to heise.de that the discontinuation of the B2B business has no connection with the takeover by Investicorp Technology Partners in April 2020.

What that means for channel partners

Hans Peter Plüss, managing director of EP: Plüss and current channel partner of Avira, is amazed at the sudden end of the B2B business. The specialist retailer has previously equipped all laptops for its customers with the Avira antivirus program. There are currently several 100 licenses out there. “We were only able to sell two-year licenses this year,” says Plüss. “We now have to look for an alternative for this. But what is the alternative?”

In an earlier email to the channel partners in September 2019, Avira announced that the above products would be limited to a term of three years. This is why the specialist dealer was only able to sell 2-year licenses in 2020. In the email, the expiry date was November 1st, 2022. According to the new email from Avira, the licenses will expire on January 1st, 2022.

Overall, the Avira specialist dealer feels neglected. Plüss is not yet able to assess whether this change will cause losses. However, Plüss doubts that he will find an offer comparable to Avira. “Avira did not write to our customers directly. When the license expired, we have so far extended it for our customers – and were able to charge these extended licenses directly to the customer without having to enter a credit card number,” explains Plüss.

The Bern University of Applied Sciences is now offering a master’s degree in cybersecurity. With the offer, BFH wants to respond to the increasing need for security specialists. Read more here.