{"id":2933,"date":"2010-08-20T09:54:54","date_gmt":"2010-08-20T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/?p=2933"},"modified":"2010-08-20T09:54:54","modified_gmt":"2010-08-20T08:54:54","slug":"intel-acquires-security-specialist-mcafee-for-7-68bn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.darknet.org.uk\/2010\/08\/intel-acquires-security-specialist-mcafee-for-7-68bn\/","title":{"rendered":"Intel Acquires Security Specialist McAfee For $7.68bn"},"content":{"rendered":"
We’ve seen a trend in recent years, especially in the technology sector of acquisitions and consolidations. It’s been something Microsoft<\/a> has been doing for a long time, acquiring smaller niche companies to improve\/supplement their existing product lines.<\/p>\n In recent years the trends has shifted towards web services and of course security, many smaller security companies have been acquired, most recently would be the Sunbelt acquisition by GFI<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back in 2007 Google Acquired Web Security Startup GreenBorder<\/a>. There have been many others of course, a lot of which we haven’t covered as they are more business related than anything else.<\/p>\n Bruce Schneier has also been talking about these kind of acquisitions for over two years<\/a>.<\/p>\n There has been a pretty unanimous WTF from the tech community as Intel<\/a> isn’t even a software provider, they are a hardware manufacturer…and yes they’ve had some flaws in their products but does that justify spending almost $8 Billion USD to acquire a security company?<\/p>\n And well McAfee<\/a> isn’t exactly highly thought of within the security community.<\/p>\n Both boards of directors have approved the deal, which is still subject to McAfee shareholder approval and regulatory approval.<\/p>\n Intel said the deal signalled its decision to put security on par with energy-efficient performance and internet connectivity as a strategic focus area.<\/p>\n “Today’s security approach does not fully address the billions of new Internet-ready devices connecting, including mobile and wireless devices, TVs, cars, medical devices and ATM machines as well as the accompanying surge in cyber threats,”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The details can be seen on Market Watch here<\/a>.<\/p>\n And well McAfee don’t even provide hardware security functions, which is I assume what Intel is looking for. Who knows, this may just be a capital investment strategy from Intel and not particularly related to what McAfee produces.<\/p>\n Intel of course can benefit from the security knowledge McAfee has and integrate that into their hardware – but that is going to take some time.<\/p>\n Several security analysts have given their opinions of what this could mean<\/a> and how it could effect Intel, McAfee and the industry in general.<\/p>\n