As more and more people adopt a work-from-home lifestyle, a good antivirus has never been more important. This may be the reasoning behind the recent buyout of McAfee, which saw an investor shell out over $14 billion for the famous security suite.
Who Bought McAfee? How Much Did It Sell For?
The software giant broke the news on the McAfee news website. The press release goes into detail as to how McAfee carried out the deal and includes some information as to what the company's new owner's future plans are.
As it turns out, the press release reveals that it wasn't a single company that picked up McAfee. Instead, it states that a large investor group bought it up. The list of investors is pretty lengthy, but it includes Advent International Corporation, Permira Advisers LLC, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, to name a few.
The deal itself cost over $14 billion. This price tag included the company itself, plus all of its prior debt that it had built up in recent years. This means that McAfee can start afresh with a clean slate and hopefully get the financial support they need to ramp up their offerings.
What Happens to McAfee Now?
If you're a big fan of McAfee and its products, you're likely worried about this news and what it means for the company as a whole. Fortunately, the investors don't seem too keen on tampering with McAfee's formula.
Bryan Taylor, the Head of Advent’s Technology Investment Team, said the following in the press release:
McAfee is one of the most trusted brands in the essential business of consumer digital protection. As consumers face new and complex cyber risks, we see tremendous opportunity to build on McAfee’s differentiated technology platform to continue delivering innovative solutions that can protect all facets of the digital lives of people around the world. We look forward to working alongside our investment partners and the talented McAfee team to continue setting the bar for consumer digital protection.
The investor group likely snapped up McAfee in a bid to profit off of the surging work-from-home market. As more people take their work desks from the office to their homes, they also need proper protection to save themselves from online threats. And with that comes the need for a powerful antivirus, like McAfee's products.
As such, it's highly unlikely that the investor group will take McAfee on a completely different road than it's taking now, neither will it dissolve the company's assets. Instead, by giving the company financial support and helping pay off its debts, there's an excellent chance that Advent and co. will help develop McAfee into a stronger force than it already is.
That's good news because McAfee has been putting up some impressive numbers lately. At the time of writing, AV-Test gave McAfee full marks for protection and ease-of-use and only docked half a point for its performance. And now that McAfee has a lot of financial backing behind it and its debt wiped out, it may do even better in the future.
A Bright Future for McAfee?
While McAfee has been bought up, there's no reason for alarm. The investor group that bought the cybersecurity giant has no desire to break it up; in fact, it seems to be the best way for McAfee to shed its past debts and grow as a company.
We've had some very positive words for McAfee as a brand. For example, we recently gave it a recommendation as one of the best antivirus suites out there that come with its own VPN.