News has just reached KitGuru that Intel are purchasing McAfee for $7.68 billion. If that makes your eyes water, then rest assured it won't make much of a dent in Intel's coffers.
This move is one of the most dramatic in Intel's history as they clearly want a shift into the security market. The deal is costing Intel $48 per share which is a 60 percent premium over McAfee's closing stock price of $29.93. ‘Let money be no object when you want something' is the motto of today.
This purchase will push Intel right up the security chain without having to fight for it and it is a logical move for the CPU giant who expect the market for security technology to grow as electronics and gadgets increase their computing power and link intuitively into the internet. Such a preemptive move into such a lucrative market could very well reap long term reward.
Analysts in the USA are making claims that many of the software tools that McAfee introduce to market will be built into chips and devices over the coming years.
Intel’s chief executive, Paul S. Otellini, said: “With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online. In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.”
KitGuru says: A wise move? Or a bad one? Your views ….
This makes little sense to me, McAfee? they make the most bloated software ever. if intel incorporate this into their CPUs they will need to double the core count just to compensate.
It seems that they have huge plans for this otherwise why the hell spend billions on a software company? I have no idea what these plans might be, but christ McAfee really aren’t anywhere near the top of my life for streamlined solution.
Wow, McAfee owned by Intel. was never expecting this. It is almost as bizarre a decision as AMD buying McDonalds.
Why didnt they channel this money into buying Nvidia instead? imagine how much they could ramp into GFX and give ATI a run for their money. AMD/ATI V Intel/Nvidia.
McAfee? well its a wise move if you want security development, but I fail to see how they can make this kind of money back even over a 10 year time frame. Clearly this has been in the hands of a research team for quite some time and numbers crunched. Seems a rather unusual move however, there are smaller companies who would have cost MUCH less and delivered a higher quality of software for intel to use.
McAfee arent so bad, they used to be awful and their software is still a little bloated, but im positive intel can sort them out.