Tech tracker round-up: Avast makes tough debut as a listed company, Facebook eyes blockchain

Here the Evening Standard business team highlights all the major tech news today.

Top story is a rather disappointing one.

The UK’s largest-ever tech float got off to a shaky start today. Software group Avast set the price for its IPO at 250p a share, which is at the bottom end of its guided range.

This gives the Czech company a value of £2.4 billion. The shares dipped 3% to 242p.

The IPO was an opportunity for private-equity investors CVC and Summit Partners to sell down their stakes.

There is another story the rounds about Facebook possibly creating its own cryptocurrency.

It comes after David Marcus, the former head of Facebook Messenger, announced that an exploratory blockchain group has been set-up within the social media giant.

Marcus said: "After nearly four unbelievably rewarding years leading Messenger, I have decided it was time for me to take on a new challenge. I’m setting up a small group to explore how to best leverage blockchain across Facebook, starting from scratch.”

Let's see what comes from it.

Sticking with cryptocurrencies and Wenn Digital, the developer of an image protection blockchain platform licensed by Kodak, said it intends to raise up to $50 million in a combined public and private token offering.

Wenn Digital has created the blockchain-based system, called KODAKOne, which seeks to protect the copyright of images or photographs registered on the platform.

US photography pioneer Kodak has been active in developing the blockchain platform with Wenn, and its recent share performance has been strongly tied to the outlook for KODAKOne.

Blockchain, the system powering cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, is a shared database that is maintained by a network of computers connected to the internet.