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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
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Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?

By | August 19, 2010, 8:24am PDT

Summary: Is Intel buying McAfee a good move or a bad move? Have your say!

Is Intel buying McAfee for $7.7 billion a good move or a bad move? Have your say!

Poll

Intel buying McAfee

A quick roiund-up of the tech pundits and opion sites seem to indicate that people think that it’s a bad move and that Intel has paid over the odds for the company.

I guess this is exactly the reason why shareholders are worried about Apple sitting on a pile of cash.

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Topics

McAfee Inc., Intel Corp., Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

Disclosure

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

All opinions expressed on Hardware 2.0 are those of Adrian Kingsley-Hughes. Every effort is made to ensure that the information posted is accurate. If you have any comments, queries or corrections, please contact Adrian via the email link here. Any possible conflicts of interest will be posted below. [Updated: February 23, 2010] - Adrian Kingsley-Hughes has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other actual/potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted so far on this blog.

Biography

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology -- whether that be by learning to program, building a PC from a pile of parts, or helping them get the most from their new MP3 player or digital camera.

Adrian has authored/co-authored technical books on a variety of topics, ranging from programming to building and maintaining PCs. His most recent books include "Build the Ultimate Custom PC", "Beginning Programming" and "The PC Doctor's Fix It Yourself Guide". He has also written training manuals that have been used by a number of Fortune 500 companies.

Adrian also runs a popular blog under the name The PC Doctor, where he covers a range of computer-related topics -- from security to repairing and upgrading.

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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
sgerper@... 23rd Aug 2010
intel has now reduced its speed by almost 40% lol
View in thread
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Going to be egg on some faces for sure.
terry flores 19th Aug 2010
I think we're seeing the middle part of the story. It might take a couple more acquisitions or a published strategy from Intel to really judge. From a financial point of view, McAfee has decent numbers especially in the profit margin, so it will be a net cash generator.
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Wintel already has Security Essential at their hand
LBiege 19th Aug 2010
Why bother on McAfee?
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worthless
Linux Geek 19th Aug 2010
no synergies here
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
martychgo@... 19th Aug 2010
Intel should have bought Checkpoint Software.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
nikacat 19th Aug 2010
I agree with the 50% of your readers who are guessing this acquisition is a bad move, and I'm imagining McAfee shareholders laughing all the way to the bank.

It's not inappropriate at this point to raise doubts about CEO Otellini's sanity. Will he eventually be regarded as nuttiest of Intel's gallery of CEO's? What happened to the share buyback? Instead we get a price drop of over 3% for a stock that already trades in the toilet. Surely Intel's Board of Directors must be having the same doubts that I and 50% of your readers are having. Is there a "Dump Otellini" movement gaining some momentum? Allow me to contribute to the cause.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
patspage@... 19th Aug 2010
@nikacat, Bad acquisitions are sure sign that top management doesn't have enough work to do.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
geocon@... Updated - 19th Aug 2010
I see no benefit to Intel users so why do something that cannot be of use to the many? George Quigley
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
PollyProteus 19th Aug 2010
Hmmm...

I know that McAfee is pre-installed on a number of OEM systems (that and Norton are generally the first things I remove from friend's systems). Perhaps Intel thinks it can give a better discount to OEMs that pre-install McAfee on Intel based OEM systems because there are lots of folks that will go for the lifetime subscription without investiging other available options that have no cost.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
grd003 Updated - 19th Aug 2010
Intel's out of their minds -- unless in the long run they intend to be a systems house, but that can't be a good strategy for a chip maker either.
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McCrapee
sds0178@... Updated - 19th Aug 2010
Why would they buy one of the top 5 worst anti-virus companies?

-Shannon
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
patspage@... 19th Aug 2010
Intel better check the books before closing. The numbers are not plausible for a company with McAfee's customer image because their products are expensive to buy and expensive to own. Moreover, they provide no better protection than their free competitors.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
RealAusTech 19th Aug 2010
It seems a strange move, more so that McAfee is a software company, that is why I voted not sure. If Intel is looking to get into software development now, I'd be asking why. Given that the majority of responders think that it is a bad move, what is going on at Intel?

It could be part of a new business strategy from them, but in what direction is it heading? I guess we will find out.
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Intel says...
Agnostic_OS 19th Aug 2010
From Intel's news site @
http://newsroom.intel.com/community/intel_newsroom/blog/2010/08/19/intel-to-acquire-mcafee
?Hardware-enhanced security will lead to breakthroughs in effectively countering the increasingly sophisticated threats of today and tomorrow,? said James. ?This acquisition is consistent with our software and services strategy to deliver an outstanding computing experience in fast-growing business areas, especially around the move to wireless mobility.?
Should be interesting to see how this pans out.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
windozefreak 19th Aug 2010
Mcafee has good crendentials in the corporate and business world. With the prices they charge, they can exist for a while. However, as someone else stated, they know something that we aren't privy to. Even the worst corporation would not spend this kind of money on a dude.
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The Point is to Sell Chips
RandSec 19th Aug 2010
Security companies generally will not re-code for new, patented, features until those are widespread in the market. And the new features are not much good until used. Buying a security company is one way to force a re-code for the new features and thus support Intel chip sales.
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Why?
wwgorman Updated - 20th Aug 2010
This acquisition certainly doesn't seem like a strategic one for for Intel. Perhaps it is a new strategy but Intel expertise is making chips---not software. The problem with anti-virus software is that you are always "behind the curve" because you are fighting somebody completely faceless that is trying to defeat you so you are always in a counter move position.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
pukame2 20th Aug 2010
As said before, one doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to know that this is a bad move! With the freebies, why would anyone ever pay for McAfee. The majority has spoken. Maybe, Intel's stockholders will too.
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
SnappyD3 20th Aug 2010
Dunno, but with MS Security Essentials gratis, and knowing that this AV comes from the mother of the OS, all other AV software is questionable.

However, a good Router/Firewall with hardware AV in the firmware, 'net upgradable, might make sense. We'll wait and see.

Maybe Intel needed the code and the patents for the AV chip??
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This is what has actually happened
illuminated.geek 20th Aug 2010
Intel CEO: "We need antivirus, can someone buy me McAfee?"
Few hours later: "Done."
- "Great, which version?"
- "Version ... ?"
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RE: Intel buying McAfee - Good move or bad move?
sgerper@... 23rd Aug 2010
intel has now reduced its speed by almost 40% lol

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