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Intel Buys McAfee
Several readers have noted that
Intel has agreed to buy McAfee, the computer antivirus software maker, for about $7.7 billion in cash. There is also a press release available if you are into that sort of thing.
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Pretty please? Just give all their victims - I mean customers - their money back and just kill it off already. McAfee has no right even existing.
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That junk is worth $7bn?
Couldn't they have bought something that's actually worth the money?
WTF are they thinking. Granted they're sitting on a pile of cash, but this is silly.
If I were an INTC shareholder I would be pretty pissed off.
If they were looking for something to do with the cash, they should have just paid out a nice dividend.
Jesus used to be my co-pilot, but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him.
I can see it now 10 years from now, just like Lycos, "McaFee purchased for $7.7 billion in 2010, sold for $200 million in 2015 has just been sold again today for $34 million to some company in Vietnam." Seriously, has anyone personal or enterprise had good experiences with their products?
-- taking over the world, we are.
Just diversifying their portfolio or are there other objectives at work?
They're gonna add even more bloat, sucking more CPU cycles, forcing people to upgrade, and therefore buy more Intel CPUs.
Intel needs people to think they need these faster multi core CPUs they keep cranking out.
And who is better at slowing Windows down to the point of uselessness then Mcafee?
It's a perfect fit. We'll see you slow, bloated software, then also sell you CPUs to make your computer usable.
-- "So they told me that using the download page to download something was not something they anticipated." - Bill Gates
Seems like this is the logical goal. Integrate AV at the hardware level and you should see a significant performance increase, plus tasty vendor lock-in.
Why in the name of timecube are you running Oracle on an architecture that McAfee can even run on?!!!
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Lots of comments and jokes here about the worth of McAfree ...
And you've got it almost completely wrong. The value of McAfree isn't in their software, its in the fact that it comes preinstalled on a massive amount of computers, it has a subscription model for recurring revenue and LOTS of people use it.
The fact that their flagship product is a pile of crap is irrelevant because people buy it anyway, without hesitation.
McAfee Antivirus might suck and be next to worthless, but McAfee the company is worth a lot of money because people are too ignorant to get the first part.
Second, as far as system slow down, and this one hurts as I hate defending such shitty products ... but ...
ALL ON-DEMAND SCANNERS KILL PERFORMANCE. They open and scan every file (EVERY file, not just exe and dlls) before passing the result along to the actual program.
There is no way around this, the data must be check before it can be used in order to be safe. Well, no matter how fast you right code, it takes a while to scan all the files that go into making even a simple program run. There are thousands of files that get openned when an app like Firefox for Photoshop starts running, and all of those files get read into memory and checked ... BEFORE they are passed along to the app calling them. Unless you invent time bending or something, this will always end up taking a very noticeable amount of time, making your computer seem slow.
Want your computer with McAfee to not run slow? Turn off on-demand scanning. Want a middle ground? Change the on-demand settings to be less agressive, but its probably not going to make much difference since the speed issue is mostly opening and reading the files in the first place.
You won't find anyone with an on-demand scanner that doesn't have these problems.
You also won't find an anti-virus company worth more other than symantec.
So yes, this was a good deal for Intel, even if most of slashdot is too blind to see the logic in the move.
I like slashdot a lot more when it was just real geeks with a clue, you know, before all the angsty idiots who happened to be socially inept and own a computer started calling it home as though they were geeks too.
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Oh come on, no more McAfee, and Norton will just step into their shoes.
Rule of Slashdot #0: You and people like you are not representative of the larger population. - A.C.
5. Buy Nvidia, and have an on-board graphics card that isn't terrible.
6. Buy AMD. Twice. Getting ATI in the process. Twice.
7. Buy Analog Devices and make a play for the low-powered market.
8. Actually bring Canoe Lake to market.
9. Send everyone in the United States two stuffed Intel Bunnies.
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