McAfee mum on local impact of Intel buy

McAfee has not commented on the fate of its 150 local staff following the US$7.68 billion acquisition of the security software company by micro-chip giant Intel.

The security vendor will become a fully-owned subsidiary of Intel and will form part of its Software and Services Group, pending regulatory and shareholder approval.

Local McAfee spokesperson Lauren Taylor could not reveal if staff would be trimmed or redeployed or roadmaps impacted, noting that senior internal staff were presently overseas.

The seemingly bizarre marriage has validity, according to IBRS security analyst James Turner, who said the chip giant is eyeing "bottom-up" security.

"Security is running the risk of being a bolt-on feature," Turner said. "It looks like McAfee is helping to secure the stack from the chip up. It doesn't look like a competitive move to block the market."

The move comes on the heels of McAfee's buy-out of Trust Digital in July, which saw the vendor enter the mobile security market.

Turner said he expects the deal will not have a significant impact to existing customers or product roadmaps.

"The product sets of [Intel and McAfee] were never competing. It is a strategic move," Turner said.

Last week, Hewlett-Packard announced plans to buy security and compliance vendor Fortify. The terms of the deal were kept under wraps.