14 DAY TRIAL // Today, Intel has announced plans to sell off a majority stake in Intel Security (formerly McAfee) to TPG, a US investment firm.
Intel will be branching out the Intel Security division into a new standalone company with an initial value of $4.2 billion.
Intel will get $3.1 billion from TPG and will keep a 49 percent stake after the transaction's completion. TPG will receive a majority stake of 51 percent and will invest a further $1.1 billion in the new company, which will be renamed back to McAfee.
Intel has said that Senior Vice President and Intel Security General Manager Chris Young along with the existing management team will continue in their roles at the new company.
"The new company will be one of the world’s largest pure-play cybersecurity companies," Intel has stated in its official press release. Intel Security's current strong points include endpoint and cloud security products.
Intel bought McAfee for $7.68 billion in January 2011. Intel rebranded the company as Intel Security in early 2014, after John McAfee, the company's founder, had several encounters with law enforcement in Belize and Guatemala that began to damage the McAfee's corporate brand.
Last week, John McAfee sued Intel for the right to use the McAfee trademark in a new company he's managing, claiming that Intel doesn't use the brand anymore, and it's his real name.