(new: share price, background and details)

FRANKFURT (dpa-AFX) - Fears of the business consequences of a hacker attack on Teamwiewer weighed heavily on the shares of the provider of remote maintenance software on Friday. They slumped by around ten percent to 10.02 euros by early afternoon. They had last cost less in November 2022. The interim weekly recovery of 5 percent has fizzled out.

On Wednesday, Teamviewer's security team detected an "anomaly" in the internal IT environment, the MDax-listed company announced. The defense team was immediately activated and appropriate processes initiated. "Together with globally recognized IT security experts, we immediately began investigations and implemented the necessary protective measures."

"Teamviewer's internal IT environment is completely independent of the product environment," the company added.

Together with an external service provider, Teamviewer currently traces the attack back to the group known as APT29 / "Midnight Blizzard". APT29 is also known under the name "Cozy Bear". This is a group controlled by the Russian secret service SWR. The Kremlin hackers are also suspected of having attacked several German parties with malware.

Other German companies have been victims of cyber attacks in the past. At the end of 2020, the manufacturer of fragrances and flavors Symrise was hit, followed by the biotech company Evotec in 2023. Evotec was subsequently unable to publish its audited annual report on time and therefore even had to temporarily leave the MDax.

With Friday's price losses, the Teamviewer share's attempt to recover is over for the time being. The share price is now down almost 30 percent at 2024. The slide had picked up speed again following the presentation of the figures for the first quarter in May. This was because Teamviewer had earned less than experts had expected at the start of the year due to higher sales and marketing costs. Sales had nevertheless increased, once again significantly in the important key account business.

However, the company has recently also felt the effects of the generally sluggish economy. "The environment remains difficult due to the economic situation, and many customers are taking longer to make decisions," Teamviewer CEO Oliver Steil told the financial news agency dpa-AFX in May. "Customers are currently playing it safe."

Teamviewer plans to report on how business went in the second quarter at the end of July./mis/niw/jha/