Computer chip giant buys AV giant

Intel becomes new owner of McAfee for the princely sum of $7.8bn

Intel

, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, is poised to acquire security giant

McAfee

– one of the ‘big four’ anti-malware vendors – in a deal worth $7.8 billion, the company’s biggest acquisition in its history.

Under the terms of the deal,

Intel

said it would pay $48 per share in cash for the security firm – a 58% increase on the stock’s closing price yesterday and the highest share price the firm has enjoyed in more than 10 years.

Intel

plans to increase its security offerings with the acquisition, with Dave DeWalt,

McAfee

CEO saying: “We believe this acquisition will result in our ability to deliver a safer, more secure and trusted Internet-enabled device experience.”

Details of the acquisiton can be found in an

Intel

news release

here

and in blog entries from

McAfee

‘s CEO David DeWalt

here

and CTO George Kurtz

here

. More on the deal is available at the

FT


here

.

Posted on 19 August 2010 by

Virus Bulletin