EU Gives Intel's Acquisition of McAfee Its Blessing

Posted 01/28/2011 at 9:48am | by Paul Lilly

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The European Union won't stand in the way of Intel's proposed $7.68 billion acquisition of security firm McAfee, though the chip maker did have to promise it wouldn't engage in any shenanigans, InformationWeek reports. Specifically, Intel had to promise that other security vendors would get access to the same technology in Intel processors and chipsets as McAfee would, while also vowing not to gimp McAfee on non-Intel hardware.

"The commitments submitted by Intel strike the right balance, as they allow preserving both competition and the beneficial effects of the merger," Joaquin Almunia, commission VP in charge of competition policy. "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."

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission already approved the proposed merger back in December, and with the EU's blessing, which is rarely easy to obtain, it's expected Intel will finalize the merger sometime this quarter.