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McAfee S-1

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Re: McAfee S-1

#21

Post by Spooky23 »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #9
Dahoon wrote: post #3

Does McAfee ever do something that isn't bad or worse?

Perhaps a more neutral phrasing: What is the value proposition for McAfee, in a world where basic anti-malware is built into most major OSs and their competitors are largely viewed as superior for the functions that they can offer?

They have a management plane that is still an asset for some people, and places with compliance requirements will use their crypto tools.

Security tools are an industry that’s all about m&a. They can buy a few startups and cobble together a suite of some sort.

Re: McAfee S-1

#22

Post by technion »

jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

Just to expand on this, the "McAfee SECURE" logo was sold to PathDefender (not TrustedSite) and all those McAfee logos you see on websites aren't operated by McAfee any more.

Re: McAfee S-1

#23

Post by peteretep »

jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

> really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee

Sorry to be glib, but: anyone who thinks the offering price is a discount against future value.

Clearly the company has _some_ revenue sources still? You could believe the company was going to be gone in five years and still think it was a good buy at the price offered.

Re: McAfee S-1

#24

Post by peteretep »

gitgud wrote: post #20

Side-note ; Anti-virus software is ironically quite invasive and can be harmful to your system. They bury themselves deep into the OS and often access undocumented kernel API's which can break the OS. In some cases they [1] betray your privacy in the name of security... I guess it's still popular because it's often part of the bloatware on new PC's and Laptops... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20703699

> I guess it's still popular because

It’s still popular because, A) it largely prevents malware, B) some security policies mandate it

Re: McAfee S-1

#25

Post by abacadaba »

jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

My mom just bought a laptop, it came with McAffee. All the Windows laptops at work still run McAffee. Presumably as means to decrease productivity as much as possible, or I guess it must check some box somewhere, got me.

Re: McAfee S-1

#26

Post by asdasfasdfasdf »

jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

>Their original founder is outspoken against them

Would anyone on the planet take investment advice from John McAfee?

Re: McAfee S-1

#27

Post by mbesto »

jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

> Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook.

Serious question - where exactly do you see this strategy being communicated specifically? Or is just purely anecdotal?

Re: McAfee S-1

#28

Post by gruez »

peteretep wrote: post #24
gitgud wrote: post #20

Side-note ; Anti-virus software is ironically quite invasive and can be harmful to your system. They bury themselves deep into the OS and often access undocumented kernel API's which can break the OS. In some cases they [1] betray your privacy in the name of security... I guess it's still popular because it's often part of the bloatware on new PC's and Laptops... [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20703699

> I guess it's still popular because It’s still popular because, A) it largely prevents malware, B) some security policies mandate it

>A) it largely prevents malware

compared to what? nothing at all? nowadays there's windows defender which is free so any antivirus product that doesn't do noticeably better is probably junk.

Re: McAfee S-1

#29

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

peteretep wrote: post #23
jjcm wrote: post #14

I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their m…

> really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee Sorry to be glib, but: anyone who thinks the offering price is a discount against future value. Clearly the company has _some_ revenue sources still? You could believe the company was going to be gone in five years and still think it was a good buy at the price offered.

I went to church (5yr ago) with a guy who was a VP in their corporate division. There was a decent detection software that they had bought up years before (Asomething) that they bundled into their edge product. That product apparently generated a lot of income.

Re: McAfee S-1

#30

Post by WarOnPrivacy »

It's been 20 years since I vowed to uninstall McAfee (& Symantec) software from every computer I could.

I've been pretty consistent at keeping that promise. Probably 1k+ uninstalls.

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