Intel / McAfee - Still a Cloudy vision

Both Forrester and Ars Tech try and explain why the Intel/McAfee deal is being done:

Forrester:

1. This is not just about “antimalware-on-a-chip-for-smartphones”. Another side-effect of people not understanding the deal is that they oversimplify it by reducing it to this one aspect...... this is about a wide range of embedded security features (not just AV, but data security and system integrity) on a wide range of devices.

2. Intel needs McAfee to thrive as a software business in its own right. In some areas, embedded security will be fully contained In the chip/system: such as Intel’s XD bit technology.

3. We need to look beyond Wind River as a model for how McAfee/Intel should evolve..... The wisdom of the Intel-McAfee deal and long-term success of McAfee will hinge both on future acquisitions and support of its growth as a stand-alone security business and also on Intel’s ability to combine McAfee technologies and its own in new ways.

4. Anti-trust concerns are avoidable or surmountable.

5. The price is quite reasonable. McAfee..... is at a 3.4x multiple. Compare that to other security acquisitions .... such as Websense's 2007 acquisition of Surf Control (3.8x), Check Point's 2007 acquisition of Pointsec (8.8x), or IBM's 2006 acquisition of ISS (3.2x).

Ars Tech:

Security is Job One

At the most recent Intel R&D day, Intel CTO Justin Rattner did a Q&A session with the press in which he was asked something to the effect of, "What do you spend most of your time working on these days?" Rattner didn't hesitate in answering "security."

Moving up the stack, and then off the stack

Intel's years of experience with vPro and its predecessors have no doubt confirmed to the company that providing silicon-level support for advanced security and remote management technologies is a waste of time if no systems integrator or popular software vendor implements them in some kind of consumer- or business-facing product or service.

Why they did it

In explaining its purchase of McAfee, Intel has clearly indicated that the real impact of the purchase won't really be felt in the computer market until later in the coming decade—this is a long-term, strategic buy. This statement fits with the idea that acquiring McAfee is Intel's way of bringing vPro and subsequent security efforts directly to businesses and consumers by just buying out the middle-man. The McAfee purchase gives Intel an instant foothold on countless PCs, a foothold that Intel itself would have to spend years building (if it were even possible).

I'd be happier if (i) they agreed with each other and (ii) that word "strategic" didn't keep popping up (I ciulled a lot of the text in both articles, so you can't see it but you can get the sense even from what I pasted up).

In other words I still don't think anyone really knows what is going on.