I wonder how these A/V's cannot know that they are taking such disastrous turns.
I was watching when AVG bloated up and was astounded they could be so tone-deaf that they didn't know they were the butt of much discussion about how they'd ruined themselves. Wouldn't any decent CEO grab the bull by the horns when his product is being openly ridiculed in all of the blogs and forums? Same with Spybot which also once was at the top of the heap.
Then again, it was only about a month ago I caught Kim Kommando show and she strongly recommended AVG, causing my jaw to drop. But as soon as she came back from commercial she retracted it. Apparently some of her forum moderators who she consults during the show had gotten to her. So the word doesn't always get all the way around.