Intel weighs sale of cyber security business
Intel is looking at options for Intel Security, including potentially selling the antivirus software maker formerly known as McAfee which it bought for $7.7bn almost six years ago. — The Silicon Valley chipmaker has been talking to bankers … Tweets: @swiftonsecurity , @nikcub and @nikcub Tweets: SecuriTay / @swiftonsecurity : McAfee has been a cancerous brand for a decade and the fact Intel never killed it off showed they didn't want to put their name behind it. Nik Cubrilovic / @nikcub : while industry grew ~25% p.a McAfee went from $2.0B rev at acquisition to ... $2.1B 5 years later in '15 (& shrunk 2% from $2.2B in '14) Nik Cubrilovic / @nikcub : think Intel wanting to sell McAfee is more a sign of peak infosec valuations than Intel wanting out of the business altogether
Context & Ripple Effects
Six years after paying $7.7bn for McAfee, Intel is talking to bankers about options for Intel Security, up to and including a sale. The unit never kept pace with its market: revenue went from $2.0bn at acquisition to $2.1bn by 2015 while the industry compounded around 25% annually, and security researchers openly argued the McAfee brand had been a liability Intel never wanted to put its own name behind.
The exit path that followed confirmed how far the asset had fallen: Intel spun the unit out as an independent McAfee valued at $4.2bn including debt, with TPG taking 51% for $1.1bn — less than half the original purchase price. From there McAfee became a private-equity consolidation vehicle, buying cloud security startup Skyhigh Networks and later drawing early talks from Thoma Bravo at a premium to the $4.2bn mark.
First-order effects
- Intel refocuses on its core silicon business and sheds a security unit whose growth badly lagged the market it sits in, while Intel Security employees and customers head into an ownership process run by bankers.
Second-order effects
- A sub-$7.7bn clearing price makes McAfee a bargain platform for financial buyers: TPG's $1.1bn for 51% set up a roll-up strategy that began with the Skyhigh Networks acquisition, and rival PE firm Thoma Bravo soon circled at a premium to the spinout valuation.
Third-order effects
- The episode marks a structural retreat of hardware giants from security software: assets bought strategically by chipmakers end up owned and consolidated by private equity, which prices them on cash flow rather than platform synergy.
The trend: Chipmakers are unwinding their 2010s-era security software acquisitions, handing cybersecurity consolidation to private equity firms running the brands as standalone cash-flow businesses.