Intel Acquires McAfee

Intel is a company that acquires many other companies, and more often than not, the reasons for these acquisitions are obvious to pretty well anyone who chooses to read into them. But yesterday, the company made an acquisition that has many scratching their heads… McAfee. Considering that Intel generally acquires companies based on future plans for their technology, this move is interesting.

In a YouTube video posted by the company, Intel’s Senior VP, Renee James, and McAfee’s President and CEO, Dave DeWalt, give viewers a glimpse as to the excitement around the acquisition, and the reasons behind it. Even after watching, though, you’re not likely to be much more informed than you were beforehand.

Renee stresses that security is important, and states that acquiring McAfee adds another “P” to Intel’s list of priorities – Power, Performance and now, Protection. She also focuses on the mobile aspect, so it’s clear that Intel’s plans have something to do with that. But being that Intel is more of a hardware company, it’s hard to expect that it acquired McAfee only to have it produce top-rate anti-virus protection for MIDs and other Internet-connected devices.

The speculation then leads to hardware. Is Intel planning to utilize McAfee’s smarts in creating new feature-sets for its processors? Could we possibly be seeing some instruction sets (or more appropriately “security sets”) added to Intel’s CPU’s that give them an edge over the competition? There are so many questions, that’s for certain, and it’s likely to take quite a while before we actually see the fruits of these forces being joined.

An even bigger question I’ve seen floating around has been “Why McAfee?“, or to an even greater extent, something akin to “WHY MCAFEE?!?!“. In the video, Renee states that Intel has long been a partner of McAfee, and is astounded as to its impressive R&D and determination to make the best products possible – not unlike Intel. But users might not see it that way. McAfee happens to be pre-installed on many PCs, but at the same time, it’s one that many people tell others to avoid.

Despite not having a clue as to the real reason for the acquisition, I’ll give Intel the benefit of the doubt and see what can become of it. I can think of other (and far less expensive options) than McAfee, but I guess time will deliver what we all want to know…

SANTA CLARA, Calif., Aug. 19, 2010 – Intel Corporation has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire McAfee, Inc., through the purchase of all of the company’s common stock at $48 per share in cash, for approximately $7.68 billion. Both boards of directors have unanimously approved the deal, which is expected to close after McAfee shareholder approval, regulatory clearances and other customary conditions specified in the agreement.