Intel sells off majority stake in McAfee unit

Intel is selling off a majority stake in its McAfee unit and turning it back into an independent security company.

Intel made the deal with investment firm TPG, which will own a 51 percent stake in the new McAfee company. Intel will own the remainder.

As part of the deal, Intel is receiving $3.1 billion in cash. It originally bought McAfee back in 2011 for $7.7 billion — a deal that caused some industry watchers to scratch their heads.

Intel is best known as a chipmaker, but at the time it was also hoping to improve  security around its products. PC security was a major concern back then, said Nathan Brookwood, principal analyst at Insight 64. But now cyberthreats are moving to target the cloud and servers.

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