Investor group acquires McAfee for more than $ 14 billion
November 8 (UPI) – A group of investors have acquired antivirus software company McAfee for more than $ 14 billion.
McAfee announced the deal on Monday, which is expected to be finalized in the first half of next year.
The investor group includes Boston-based buyout firm Advent International, UK global investment firm Permira; Crosspoint Capital Partners; the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, GIC Private Limited, which is a sovereign wealth fund of Singapore; and a wholly owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, according to the announcement.
The group will acquire all of McAfee’s outstanding common shares for $ 26 per share in a cash transaction valued at over $ 14 billion based on enterprise value. The purchase price represents a premium of about 22.6% over McAfee’s closing stock price of $ 21.21 on Thursday, the last trading day before Bloomberg reported the potential sell-off.
“McAfee is one of the most trusted brands in the essential area of digital consumer protection,” said Bryan Taylor, head of Advent’s technology investment team and managing partner at Palo Alto, in the statement. . “As consumers face new and complex cyber risks, we see a tremendous opportunity to leverage McAfee’s differentiated technology platform to continue to deliver innovative solutions that can protect all facets of digital life. people around the world. ”
Intel, the world’s largest chipmaker, acquired McAfee in 2010 for $ 7.68 billion and changed the brand name in 2014 to stand out from founder John McAfee, who had become controversial, but McAfee is returned on the stock market last year.
The former NASA and Lockheed computer programmer who founded the antivirus company in 1987 resigned from the security software company in 1994 and sold his remaining stakes two years after its IPO.
In June, McAfee, 75, was found dead in a Spanish prison cell after being ordered to be extradited to the United States for tax evasion. Authorities said they believed he committed suicide in his cell in a prison in the Spanish region of Catalonia, El Diario reported.
In March, federal prosecutors charged McAfee and his advisor Jimmy Gale with conspiracy to commit fraud, among other crimes, in a scheme involving cryptocurrency investments.
In 2012, he fled to Guatemala to avoid police questioning in the shooting death of his neighbor in Belize, and the story became the focus of a 2016 Showtime documentary.
Despite the Belize scandal, in 2015 McAfee announced his candidacy for the presidency of the United States as a libertarian candidate, on a platform to forgive all marijuana users in prison and to prevent “the United States”. United to be the policeman of the world ”, but never got the nomination.