Santa Clara, Calif.
— Intel’s recent acquisition of McAfee
for $7.7 billion should result in a joint product sometime in
early 2011.
A company spokeswoman would give no details on the
proposed product other than to say it will place McAfee’s Internet
security capability on an Intel processor. Intel believes
this level of protection is needed particularly for mobile webconnected
devices like tablets, cars and anything else driven
by a processor, the spokeswoman said.
This was done for Intel to get security technology into their
processors, said Steve Baker, industry analysis VP for The
NPD Group, adding that it will help bolster McAfee.
“McAfee has been down a bit the last few years, with Symantec
and others like Kaspersky and Trend Micro picking it
up lately,” Baker said.
Outside joint products, analysts said the deal was struck
so each company could gain access to the other’s intellectual
property.
Gartner’s research VP Leslie Fiering said McAfee was an
excellent pickup for Intel as it is very profitable with excellent
margins, and McAfee itself has recently made several acquisitions
to bolster its own intellectual property library.
“This was all about intellectual property, and I feel it was a
good deal for both parties,” she said.
The deal has received approval of the company’s boards
and is expected to close after it receives approval from
McAfee’s shareholders and regulatory clearances. McAfee
will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel, and it will
report to Intel’s software and services group.
Intel said there will be no layoffs or consolidation between
the two companies, with each retaining their current office
space. In addition, McAfee will continue to offer its full line
of products.
When finalized, McAfee’s position within Intel will likely resemble
that of software distributor Wind River, which was
bought last year, the company said.
Fiering did not think the mating of Intel and McAfee will
have any direct impact on the former company’s ongoing battle
with AMD in the processor space. Instead, she believes
whatever is co-developed between the new partners is likely
to be open platform.
