McAfee channel welcomes Intel deal
Partners shocked but upbeat after Intel wins high-stakes contest for security vendor
Tina Tsoukatos: Bringing Intel and McAfee together cannot be a bad thing
McAfee partners were caught cold by Intel’s takeover of the security vendor but most believe the union could benefit them.
The chip giant hopes to complete the $7.68bn (£4.95bn) deal before the end of the year, after which it will run McAfee as a separate unit. It has pledged to maintain all McAfee’s current product lines but also plans to develop an all-new “enhanced” category of combined hardware and software products.
McAfee’s top Elite partners gave the deal a tentative thumbs up.
The rumour mill had linked McAfee to a deal with HP but Paul Spencer, director at Elite partner Axial Systems, argued that McAfee VARs would be safer under the Intel umbrella.
“I would have been more concerned if McAfee had gone to HP,” he said. “HP has a big presence in the software sector and that would have created more of a challenge for existing McAfee partners. With Intel, I can’t see a complete integration happening.”
Charles Barratt, business development director of Elite partner Dataplex, hoped the merger would lead to a three-way partnership between McAfee, Intel and Citrix around virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI).
“McAfee made a big move with Citrix earlier this year around VDI,” he said. “There is possibly some harmony there if Intel integrates McAfee into its chipset – it would simplify the VDI architecture security model."
But Barratt described the move as a "bolt from the blue": "We knew McAfee was a prime acquisition target but no-one was expecting Intel to be the one who bought it."
Tina Tsoukatos, managing director at Elite partner Business Management Services, said: “We deal exclusively with the NHS, and Intel and McAfee are two massive brands within the NHS. Bringing them together cannot be a bad thing.”
Tony Harbon, owner of Elite partner Clearview Systems, also backed the deal despite admitting it came as a surprise.
“The prospect of a combination of the technical quality of McAfee’s extended product portfolio and Intel’s proven expertise in marketing is a very attractive one for us,” he said.