CEO of antivirus vendor AVG to step down

After two years at the job, the CEO of Dutch antivirus seller AVG Technologies is stepping down.

AVG said Thursday that it is looking for a replacement for CEO JR Smith who can take the company public.

Smith remains CEO for now, and is expected to stay on in another capacity after his replacement is found, said company spokeswoman Siobhan MacDermott.

The company also plans to expand its senior management team and is looking at creating new positions for a chief operations officer and senior vice president of business development, MacDermott said.

"We need more senior management to manage more people as we add them and grow the business," she said.

Founded by two Czech entrepreneurs in 1991, AVG is now owned by three investment firms: majority stakeholder Enterprise Investors, Benson Oak and Intel Capital.

It employs about 350 people and boasts more than 80 million users worldwide. It is best known for its free antivirus software, called AVG Free.

Smith, who came to the company from U.K. mobile services provider Mobile Network Operator, led the company through the acquisition of Exploit Prevention Labs and Sana Security.

Last year, he changed the company's name from Grisoft to AVG Technologies.

AVG hasn't said when it expects to make its initial public offering, but it first floated the idea last year, before the global recession put the plans on hold.

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