| By Xenia von Wedel |
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| March 9, 2009 07:30 PM EDT |
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3,687 |
What downturn? Some tech companies are in full b(l)oom - CyberDefender, LA security company is at over 8 million users, up from ‘only' 4 Million user milestone passed in September. The company started in the midst of the technology bust in 2003 and is used to troubled times, hard work and sweat equity, never the less ramping up to nearly 1 million clients per month...
For years after the dot com bubble burst, many investors shunned tech IPOs. After the party was over, the tech industry left behind a gaping new offering void. Many underwriters disappeared, overzealous regulations and litigation deterred both startups and VCs, and many others looked toward other exits. Startups were left with M&A as their only exit strategy. Even today, tech startups dream about being acquired by Google, not an IPO. Moreover, start-ups who do brave the public waters tend to do so through a reverse merger or an IPO in Europe.
In the midst of this environment, one Los Angeles Company went public with a successful IPO. Antivirus software developer CyberDefender, an innovative security software company founded in 2003, went public in 2005 and has thrived, even in the current market meltdown securing personal computers. At the time of their debut, Symantec (Norton), MacAfee and Trend Micro dominated the antivirus market, all concentrating on finding the solutions for new virus outbreaks. None of the competitors in the marketplace had free security tools, however all of them had high network maintenance and infrastructure costs, high customer acquisition costs and elaborate legacy technology that restricted innovation. CyberDefender's innovation was to give the best basic protection available for free, as an inexpensive way of achieving market share, and then up sell its more sophisticated services.
This strategy has worked. CyberDefender [CyberDefender Corporation (OTCBB: CYDE, www.CyberDefender.com] is firmly putting its foot in the top ten worldwide companies in the anti-virus market. CyberDefender is currently gaining about a million new users per month and revenues have multiplied in the past year - all throughout the worst economic conditions the US has seen in decades. In addition, its stock price has remained relatively stable, similar to most antivirus companies, which are increasingly seen as recession-proof. Viruses don't go away in downturns and malware, including economically driven bugs like phishing and key logging, tend to increase in hard times.
Xenia von Wedel, Tech blogger~editor / PR Director/San Francisco. Xenia joined Terpin Communications in February, 2000. She has supervised a variety of technology accounts for the Firm, including many open source leaders, such as KDE, SuSE Linux and Xandros. Her high-profile placements include a major national feature stories on the Associated Press, plus full-length feature stories in USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News. Internationally, she has placed substantial feature stories in the Economist, Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, South China Morning Post, Die Zeit and others. She is fluent in German and French, and conversational in Spanish.
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