I find this news very surprising: Reuters is reporting that Intel is buying McAfee for almost $8 billion.
Let's review:
- Intel is the market leader for computer microchips, primarily CPUs
- Intel makes some other great products: networking equipment, motherboards, and lots of cool hardware
- Intel makes software too, but I've never perceived it to be a revenue source for them - they contribute to the linux kernel and released powertop as open source, though now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure they offer enterprise software for managing tons of computers, networks, and storage systems
- McAfee makes anti-virus software
I guess there could be a match, but it still surprises me. Frankly I think software like McAfee is more harmful than helpful. Sorry - I have to save that explanation for another day!
