I was saddened to hear about the sale of Sunbelt to GFI -- I immediately e-mailed the CEO of Sunbelt with my concerns for a possible degradation of customer service and the great products they carry, and said that I hoped they did not lose the name Sunbelt. I have used their products for many years. In typical Sunbelt fashion, the CEO responded personally to my e-mail message the same day. He assured me there would be no degradation in customer service or product, but the name Sunbelt was history. What a great company!
I truly hope that it stays as great as it has been.
-Shon
It seems like GFI is most successful in Europe, while Sunbelt is best known here in the U.S. This might be a great opportunity for each company's products to expand more globally. IMO, one of the best things about this is the lack of overlap between product lines -- hopefully no jobs will be lost as a result of this acquisition.
-Dave
I switched to Sunbelt's CounterSpy about three years ago after I got tired of paying Symantec big bucks just to eat up my system resources. I upgraded to VIPRE when it came out and I love it! It absolutely works and is very reasonably priced! You only notice it's there when it finds something fishy!
The merger has me worried, though, as GFI has much more of a business focus that a home focus. While that might finally help me convince my system guys here at work to give up McAfee, I'm worried the price for my home license may start being priced like a business license at the cost of Symantec (or McAfee) renewal prices. My VIPRE renewal is next month; we'll see what happens to the cost!
However, if GFI absorbs Sunbelt's home use philosophy, this will be a fantastic merger. Time will tell.
-Ron