Intel explains why they bought McAfee

CNET published an interview with Intel Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Software and Services Group at Renee J. James, which discussed the acquisition of Intel by McAfee. At Intel, Rene is responsible for delivering software products along distribution lines and supporting them. In addition, she is responsible for Intel's worldwide developer programs, as well as the work of the next generation R & D software development division. James is also chairman of Intel’s two subsidiaries: Wind River Systems and Havoc.

Q (CNET correspondent): Where do you see the strengths of McAfee?
About (René James): McAfee’s forte is their fantastic R & D team and engineers and their security research. Over the past few years they have expanded by making several important acquisitions. In the future, their main technology will be well positioned for mobile devices, in security systems based on cloud systems, where now there is a need for such technologies. They are not the market leader in software antiviruses. And although this is an important area, they have other assets that are also important. They are a complete security company. And this is another thing that we liked. In addition, they showed strong growth quarter after quarter, year after year.

Q: How does this fit into Intel's strategy?
A: Security is one of the key technologies in which Intel invests, along with technology in the areas of energy efficiency, performance, or network technology. Security technologies are applicable to our products in data centers, laptops, desktops, and any Atom devices — TVs, phones, or tablets. Security is often one of the most important criteria for purchase and interest. Thus, it is distributed throughout the product line.

Q: And Intel chips and McAfee technologies, how do they fit together?
A: Security can be enhanced with hardware. You can have a software solution, but make it much more reliable in combination with hardware. The possibility of combining technology was one of the motives for this acquisition. We can even add extensions to our crystals, which provide end users with greater protection. There are a number of tasks where the hardware could help software in preventing attacks, recovering from attacks, or additional protection from certain types of attacks. We are thinking about these things now. Currently, McAfee continues to sell its software products on the market for various platforms. But she will have the opportunity to increase the security of her products due to the advantages of our chips. It may take several years.
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(Editor's Note: It turns out that in the future, McAfee software will appear, which will allow you to use technology embedded in Intel chips to increase security.)

Q: Do you already have any joint development with McAffe, which you did before announcing the acquisition of the company?
A: What happens is derived from our partnership, our collaboration, the use of existing technologies such as VT (virtualization technology), AMT (active management technology), features that have been in products for many years. And all this was accompanied by negotiations and joint prototyping. We planned to enter the market with an expanded line of products and services. We thought about this and that it could be very interesting for us. The only question was how can we make money from it? Intel platforms will be much better, consumers will be satisfied. But how can our shareholders return the money invested? These thoughts led us to introduce the possibility of acquisition.

Q: What else can Intel get from this deal?
A: Today we have some hardware security features implemented in silicon that allow companies like McAfee to offer anti-theft technologies. That is, if you turn off the stolen computer, then the next time you connect to the network, it will be blocked. And we had several partner companies to implement this solution. But we ourselves do not have security software today. And I do not think that we could catch up with a company like McAfee, which has experience, a huge knowledge base and portfolios of implemented IT projects.

Based on: CNET