Less than 6 months after John McAfee was found dead in his Spanish jail cell, the anti malware company that still bears his name is back in the news. The anti-malware and internet security firm, McAfee announced Monday (11/08/2021) that it had reached an agreement to be bought. The McAfee has been bought by a global investor group in a deal worth more than $14 billion.
McAfee will move forward as a privately held company. The new firm will be a pure consumer cybersecurity play. McAfee has 20 million subscribers for its security services globally.
McAfee investors
The global investor group is made up of Advent International Corp., Permira Advisors, Crosspoint Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private Limited and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
McAfee sold it’s Enterprise business in July, 2021 for $4.50 a share to Symphony Technology Group. The sale equaled $4 billion.
The move takes the publicly-traded company private again after the initial public offering of McAfee by Intel and TPG last year.
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Confused? I don’t. blame you. The firm has a history of changing.
- 1987 to 1997 – The company was founded as and known as McAfee Associates, Inc.
- 1997 to 2004 – Network Associates Inc.
- 2004 to 2014 – Renamed back to McAfee Associates, Inc.
- 2014 to 2017 – The company was part of the Intel Security Group.
- 2017 to 2020 – The firm was spun out of Intel and renamed McAfee.
2020 – McAfee goes public again with a $740 million IPO on Nasdaq under ticker symbol MCFE. This marked its return to the public market after 9 years.- 2021 – McAfee sold it’s Enterprise business to Symphony Technology Group for $4 billion.
- 2021 – McAfee sold it’s consumer business to an investor group in a deal worth more than $14 billion.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.