Intel Corporation’s Move To Acquire McAfee Hits Roadblock

Intel Corporation’s move to take over McAfee Inc, specializing in security software, has caught the attention of European Government. The deal, valued at roughly $7.68 billion is likely to be delayed.

Anti Trust Regulators belonging to the European Union have in private articulated apprehensions as a prelude to the deal, hence the regulator may be inclined to subject the deal to an extensive evaluation.

Intel has plans to incorporate McAfee’s security features into their commonly used microprocessor chips. The transfer of ownership to Intel, would result in a situation where Intel had privileged access to certain critical features, that would be unfair for their competitors to compete, making them vulnerable. Based on the procedural notification regarding their plans from Intel, the Europian Commission has circulated several questionnaires to the other competing security software providers in the market to gauge their opinions and reactions, on the deal.

The questions related to the possibility of Intel embedding various security related functions into their chips and if it would lead to restrictive practices by Intel, leading other consumers to work only with McAfee software. The EU had already fined Intel in 2009 for misusing their dominant position in the market.