Intel gets EU approval to acquire McAfee

[News_Editor]

Intel gets EU approval to acquire McAfee

2011-01-27 09:25:08 GMT+7 (ICT)

BRUSSELS (BNO NEWS) -- The European Commission on Wednesday approved - under the European Union (EU) Merger Regulation - Intel's proposed $6.6 billion acquisition of security software giant McAfee.

The approval is conditional upon a set of commitments ensuring fair competition between the parties and their competitors in the field of computer security, a growing concern due to the exponential rise in the number of malware such as viruses.

The Commission was concerned that rival IT security products could be excluded from the marketplace given Intel's strong presence in the world markets for computer chips and chipsets. In particular, the Commission worried about the high likelihood that the merged entity would embed its own security solutions into its chips and chipsets.

The Commission's investigation identified serious competition concerns regarding the possible bundling of CPUs and chipsets on the one hand with McAfee's security solutions, on the other hand.

In particular, the Commission was concerned that, as a result of the proposed transaction as initially notified, other companies' security solutions might have suffered from a lack of interoperability with Intel CPUs and chipsets or from a technical tying between the latter and McAfee's security solutions.

In addition, the EU was also concerned about possible effects on Intel’s competitors if McAfee solutions were no longer compatible with non-Intel CPUs and chipsets.

However, Intel committed, among other things, to ensure that vendors of rival security solutions will have access to all necessary information to use functionalities of Intel's CPUs and chipsets in the same way as those functionalities used by McAfee.

Intel also committed not to actively impede competitors' security solutions from running on Intel CPUs or chipsets. Finally, Intel will avoid hampering the operation of McAfee's security solutions when running on personal computers containing CPUs or chipsets sold by Intel's competitors.

"The commitments submitted by Intel strike the right balance, as they allow preserving both competition and the beneficial effects of the merger," said Commission Vice-President in charge of competition policy Joaquín Almunia.

"These changes will ensure that vigorous competition is maintained and that consumers get the best result in terms of price, choice and quality of the IT security products," he added.

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