McAfee headcount grows after Intel takeover

Stephen Withers
Tuesday, 16 August 2011 17:33

IT People - Enterprise

The acquisition of security vendor McAfee by Intel has allowed the company to maintain its strategy and add to its employee numbers.

McAfee's acquisition by Intel earlier this year has not resulted in any change to the company's basic strategy, according to Steve Redman, president of McAfee's Asia Pacific operation. "Our 'go to market' is completely unchanged," he said.

"This is one of the best acquisitions I've seen in  my 28 years in the industry," Mr Redman said. Intel invests in product quality and product innovation, and consequently "things that haven't changed in the last 20 years will change in the next 12 months."

While companies in various sectors have seen many retrenchments since the GFC, McAfee has added more than 300 people to its workforce in the last two years, he said. Regional changes include an increase in R&D, an increase in support staff, the establishment of manufacturing in Asia, and the creation of a customer briefing centre in Sydney.

George Kurtz, executive vice president and worldwide CTO at McAfee, explained that "this is not a synergy deal" - Intel's intention was to increase staff after the acquisition, funding the additional headcount from savings in compliance activities that were possible once McAfee became a subsidiary company.