It sounds like it may be the end of the road for McAfee. Well, the name at least.
You may remember that in August 2010 it was announced that Intel was acquiring McAfee for a jaw-dropping $7.68 billion, which has been running since as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the chip manufacturer.
At the CES show in Las Vegas yesterday, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that the firm was phasing out the name “McAfee” in favour of “Intel Security”.
In addition, smartphone versions of the product will apparently be free for iOS and Android devices (which might suggest they weren’t having very much luck selling them).
It’s not the first time that an attempt has been made to kill off the McAfee brand name.
Back in the late 1990s, when McAfee Associates acquired Network General, the firm was rebranded NAI (Network Associates International) – but the rebrand was a failure, and after a few years they reverted to the McAfee name.
It’s a complete and utter mystery why Intel would want to get rid of one of the most famous and familiar names in the world of anti-virus.
Here’s a video of anti-virus veteran John McAfee, who founded the company in 1987, and hasn’t been involved with the firm for about 20 years.
Like I said, complete mystery.
Update: The BBC spoke to John McAfee, who it appears, is very happy about Intel’s decision to stop using his name.
“I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet. These are not my words, but the words of millions of irate user… My elation at Intel’s decision is beyond words.”
I wish more execs had a sense of humour … maybe not as extreme :-), but hell, humour is humour; Anyone would think Spike Milligan's producer (Chilton ?) did the vid :-)