Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion • Hacker News Board

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#41

Post by eru » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:33 PM UTC

napierzaza wrote: post #28

jakevoytko wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McAfee also has strong UI programming expertise that Intel sorely needed. Intel's IPP and MKL libraries are absolutely great, but VTune looks like it is fresh out of 2002. They get access to several stable revenue streams (like antivirus), and can cherry-pick talent to work on whatever projects they want. There aren't many downsides for Intel.

7.7 Billion dollars for UI design? It seems strange that Intel is investing in this particular sector that leverages mostly Windows stuff. They should move out of Steve Ballmer's basement and make their own OS. Why do they want to make software for platforms when their competencies are on hardware? One that doesn't look like a antivirus program for Windows.

I don't really get how you can write:

"They should move out of Steve Ballmer's basement and make their own OS." and "Why do they want to make software for platforms when their competencies are on hardware?" at the same time.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#42

Post by jakevoytko » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:33 PM UTC

napierzaza wrote: post #28

jakevoytko wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

McAfee also has strong UI programming expertise that Intel sorely needed. Intel's IPP and MKL libraries are absolutely great, but VTune looks like it is fresh out of 2002. They get access to several stable revenue streams (like antivirus), and can cherry-pick talent to work on whatever projects they want. There aren't many downsides for Intel.

7.7 Billion dollars for UI design? It seems strange that Intel is investing in this particular sector that leverages mostly Windows stuff. They should move out of Steve Ballmer's basement and make their own OS. Why do they want to make software for platforms when their competencies are on hardware? One that doesn't look like a antivirus program for Windows.

My bullet points are just pointing out some icing on the cake that comes with the deal.

"Why do they want to make software for platforms when their competencies are on hardware?"

Vendor lock-in and community are just as helpful for Intel as they are for other businesses. If they can grease the wheels for their primary business (even at a small loss), then it's not necessarily a bad idea.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#43

Post by secret » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:34 PM UTC

Groxx wrote: post #36

Heard via NPR this morning: Intel stocks are down a few %, while McAfee is up over 50% . Seems investors think this is better for McAfee than Intel, too.

Intel offered 60% more than McAfee was worth yesterday. Basically if you buy MFE now (up 57% as I write), you're essentially just buying a bond with a 3% return between now and when the stock switches to Intel. Of course, there's always a chance the deal isn't completed for whatever reason.

As for Intel going down, I would sell too. I don't really see how this deal makes sense.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#44

Post by eru » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:35 PM UTC

mnemonicsloth wrote: post #4

...for a 60% price premium. Right now, large companies have so much cash available to them, on such attractive terms, that acquisitions don't have to be a terribly good fit to be attractive. It's just time to buy.

How about paying dividends?

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#45

Post by eru » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:37 PM UTC

pcestrada wrote: post #13

Maybe Intel hopes to extend their 'Intel Inside' campaign to include anti-virus protection?

Didn't they stop that campaign years ago?

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#46

Post by loupgarou21 » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:39 PM UTC

shadowfox wrote: post #40

mcknz wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Intel decided to do a public good, and plans to remove all McAfee antivirus software from the planet.

Is McAfee really that bad?

After buying Secure Computing and then discontinuing the SnapGear I know I'm not terribly happy with them.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#47

Post by jdavid » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:44 PM UTC

If Intel bought this in CASH, that would be silly, most likely they took our a low interest rate loan and used the cash to back it.

The fact that deals like this are happening means that the gloves are off and companies are not bunkering in anymore for a nuclear winter.

Also since this is just into 3rd qtr, this means that the company is not worried about 4qtr reports, this is clearly a sign of getting a head start on growth. I wonder how long the integration will take, 3 months would put in in 4qtr with something for Christmas?

What other software could Intel be looking at?

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#48

Post by c00p3r » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:53 PM UTC

Seems like a management misunderstanding, or they really believe in a long life of MS. Even their own MeeGo (which is just a bunch or rpms) doesn't require any proprietary security solution, leave alone Android.

Of course, they could create and start to push some artificial, unnecessary security framework, but to whom? Some mobile Windows 7 on Atom I guess.. ^_^ which obviously a born-dead platform, same as this MeeGo.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#49

Post by Marticus » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:54 PM UTC

cryptoz wrote: post #2

Why would they do this? It seemed obvious to me than in 5-10 years Antivirus software would be obsolete and unnecessary. I hear people every day recommending Windows 7 users get Microsoft Security Essentials and nothing else. And personally I run Ubuntu, so I haven't thought about antivirus software in years... This seems like a very odd decision to me. Intel, a world leader in processor design, does not need to get…

Well what worries me is mostly "what's going to happen to my job now?" I'm not some higher-up so... outlook isn't great. I've seen enough mergers to know how that usually goes.

So! I'm officially bad luck with businesses (was around just as CompUSA got liquidated, now McAfee acquisition), anyone wanna hire an MIS major with a burning desire to learn stuff solely for the sake of learning?

But in all seriousness, I've been speculating over the reasoning behind Intel doing this, and haven't come to many conclusions. As some others here have stated, McAfee actually has quite comprehensive network security (I've obviously seen the network layouts / architectures), etc, and maybe Intel just wants to try and market that?

I have yet to come up with a good reason - they are pretty disparate companies from what I can tell. There are "some" common grounds, but not many.

Re: Intel to buy McAfee for $7.7 Billion

#50

Post by larsberg » Thu, Aug 19, 2010, 2:55 PM UTC

Maven911 wrote: post #7

talk about being overpriced... i guess the bankers knew how to negotiate

"advised by Goldman Sachs"

Who wants to bet Goldman took a large, long McAfee position in the last couple of days? From an unrelated portion of the company, performing usual hedging activities, naturally :-)