Intel’s McAfee acquisition gets EU thumbs up

Acqusition

Intel's proposed acquisition of security heavyweight McAfee has been signed off by the European Union (EU).

The EU's competition commission had "serious concerns" around the issue of competitors in the security space still being able to access Intel's processors, but gave its blessing to the deal after the chip maker pledged to remain open to rival vendors.

"The commitments submitted by Intel strike the right balance, as they allow preserving both competition and the beneficial effects of the merger," said Joaqun Almunia, the commission's vice president in charge of competition policy.

"These changes will ensure that vigorous competition is maintained and that consumers get the best result in terms of price, choice and quality of the IT security products."

Intel first announced the acquisition back in August, putting $7.68 billion (4.81 billion) on the table for arguably one of the best known names in the security sector.

McAfee will become part of the software and services group at Intel, led by Renee James, and bring over about 6,000 employees to the company.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.