McAfee nearing sale to private equity firms - reports

Various reports suggest McAfee is in talks with a consortium of private equity investors led by Advent International

McAfee is in talks to sell up to a consortium of private equity firms in a deal valued at more than $10bn, according to various reports.

The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and the Financial Times cited people familiar with the discussions between McAfee and a consortium of private equity investors, which is led by Advent International and also includes Permira, CPP Investment Board, Crosspoint Capital, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and GIC.

It would represent one of the biggest cybersecurity acquisitions of all time and would bring McAfee's brief spell as a public company to an end, having undergone an IPO last October.

However, talks could still "fall apart", according to Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal.

McAfee's shares were up 20 per cent by closing on Friday following the report from Bloomberg.

Earlier this year, McAfee became a consumer-only business by selling off its enterprise division to Symphony Technology Group in a deal worth $4bn. Symphony then announced plans to merge the business with FireEye Products to create a new company with $2bn revenues.

McAfee was previously owned by Intel, which acquired the business in 2010 for $7.7bn but sold a 51 per cent stake in 2016 to private equity firm TPG Capital. TPG then sold part of its stake to another private equity firm Thoma Bravo, before McAfee opted to IPO in 2020.

But, after a brief spell on the stock market, McAfee could now become private once again, with the Wall Street Journal claiming a deal with the private equity consortium is "near".