Network Associates to change name to McAfee

James Niccolai   Today’s Top Stories   or  Other Security Stories  

Web Threats Don't Discriminate The Secure Web Gateway. Mission Critical For Business Dynamic Data Center and Virtualization Drives Operational Excellence at Emory Healthcare Fast and Simple Recovery of Your Critical Microsoft® Applications with Symantec Backup Exec" Converging System and Data Protection for Complete Disaster Recovery Learn How to Think Ahead of Attacks and Protect your Data For the Future Compterworld Technology Briefing: Intelligent Users Use Business Intelligence Computerworld Report- Large Enterprises Pay More for IPAM An Apple for Your Enterprise? Sign up to receive Security Resource Alerts

April 23, 2004 (IDG News Service) -- Network Associates Inc. plans to sell off its Sniffer family of network management software and change its name to McAfee Inc. as part of an effort to cut costs and boost profitability by focusing squarely on security products and services, the company announced yesterday.
Network Associates plans to sell its Sniffer assets for $275 million in cash to Silver Lake Partners and Texas Pacific Group. The private equity firms will turn the Sniffer business into a new, stand-alone company called Network General Corp., which will continue to develop, support and market the products, according to a statement.
The companies expect the sale to close in the third quarter, subject to regulatory approvals, at which time Network Associates will change its name to McAfee. It considers McAfee to be a better known, more powerful brand than Network Associates, said George Samenuk, the company's chairman and CEO, in a conference call with media and analysts.
Network Associates also announced that it expects to report net revenue of $217 million for its first fiscal quarter, with net earnings of 32 cents per share on a GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) basis, or 10 cents per share on a pro forma basis. The quarter ended March 31.
Analysts were expecting pro forma earnings of 11 cents per share on revenue of $212 million, according to a consensus estimate from Thomson Financial/First Call. McAfee is due to report its first-quarter results Tuesday.
The goal of the changes is to streamline the company around security products and boost operating margins to 25% by mid-2005, Samenuk said. To achieve that goal, Network Associates is also changing the architecture of its back-end systems and revamping its channel program.
The Sniffer products, which are used by businesses to manage the performance of networks and applications, hadn't been meeting targets for profit and growth, Samenuk said. They're the company's last remaining products not related to security, after it sold its Magic line of help desk and management products to BMC Software Inc. late last year.
"It's our goal to minimize as much as possible the transition issues faced by our Sniffer customers. Most of the large McAfee customers are also Sniffer customers, so we want [the new company] to be wildly successful," Samenuk said.
The Sniffer group employed between 450 and 500 people, or 15% of Network Associates' workforce, and the majority of those workers will become part of Network General, Samenuk said. The change will reduce Network Associates' revenue by about $200 million this year, he said.
"The strategic steps we are taking now will create a company that is well positioned to capitalize on the high demand inthe security business," he said.
The name change brings Network Associates full circle. Once upon a time, it was called McAfee Associates Inc. In 1997, McAfee Associates merged with Network General Corp. -- the name being given to the new Sniffer business -- and the new company became Network Associates Inc.

Reprinted with permission from

IDG.net
Story copyright 2008 International Data Group. All rights reserved.

Print this Story

Send Us Feedback

E-mail this Story

Digg this Story

Slashdot this Story

"The recent attacks in Mumbai were carried out by assailants using high tech methods. It’s just another way in which..." Read more... Read more Security posts or See all Blogs

Virtually every Windows PC at risk, says Secunia License server glitch exposes SonicWall users to e-mail security threats Transmitting data from the middle of nowhere More top stories...

Moving to a start-up? Fasten your seatbelt In high-tech schools of the future, Facebook in class is boosted -- not banned Clues point to Jan. 13 release of Windows 7 beta

Review: The new MacBook Air, now with extra SSD goodness Thin as ever, the latest Air offers up to twice the storage and snappy performance. Cool Stuff: Your 2008 Holiday Gift Guide We've got an array of economical, expensive, and just plain weird tech gifts for your friends and family. Massive botnet returns from the dead, starts spamming The spam-spewing 'Srizbi' botnet that was shut down two weeks ago has been resurrected and is again under criminal control, say security researchers. Elgan: Why you can't trust 'friends' on Facebook Facebook is popular and growing -- especially with criminals. Here's why they love it. Windows 7 Get the latest news, reviews and more about Microsoft's newest desktop operating system More Continuing Coverage Windows 7 Voting Technology Google's Chrome browser Economy in turmoil: Latest news and tips iPhone 3G Bill Gates moves on Windows Vista A to Z Mac A to Z 2008 Salary Survey Find wage data for 50 IT job titles. More Special Reports 2008 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2007 Premier 100 IT Leaders 2008 Best Places to Work in IT 2007 Best Places to Work in IT 2008 Salary Survey 2007 Salary Survey 2006 Salary Survey 2008 IT Forecast 2007 IT Forecast 40 Years of Computerworld Top 12 Green-IT Users The FAQs About Going Green IT Schools to Watch iPhone: One Year Later Global Mobile Your Next Data Center Management: Reinventing IT Stop Data Leaks Web 2.0 Security Surviving Disasters Managing Storage Virtualization The Lean Storage Machine Storage on Trial Can Web 2.0 Save BI? Bypass These BI Potholes All Zones Business Continuity Zone The File Data Management Zone Security Management Zone The SAS Zone Business Intelligence and Analytics Zone The Enterprise Search Zone Software as a Service Zone The Security Zone See your link here

Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality Moving to Windows Vista: The Promise, The Reality View this exclusive webcast today! Go to the webcast  Computerworld Executive Bulletin: Building a Robust Antivirus Defense Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs. (Source: MessageLabs) Antivirus software alone isn't enough to prevent today's speedy, sophisticated virus attacks. Security managers should consider multitiered approaches that include behavior scanning, appliances that check e-mail for worms, and restricting user access to dangerous Web sites. Download this Executive Bulletin (a $49.95 value) for free, compliments of MessageLabs, to learn more. Download this executive briefing  Record Capacity for Microsoft? Exchange 2007 With VMware and IBM System x3850 M2 Download this white paper today! (Source: VMware) The more that e-mail becomes an entrenched IT infrastructure application, the more that messaging administrators face numerous--sometimes conflicting--demands in the categories of availability, flexibility and cost. Employing a virtual solution can help avoid expensive over-provisioning of server computing resources, while improving management and disaster recovery. And ultimately, it can more than double the number of supportable Exchange 2007 users, as compared to a non-virtualized environment. This whitepaper explains how to break down the scalability barrier and respond faster to your mail system needs. Download this white paper  White Papers Read up on the latest ideas and technologies from companies that sell hardware, software and services. The Importance of Application Management Dell Client Migration and Deployment Services Windows? Enterprise Data Protection with Symantec Backup Exec" View more whitepapers

• Virtually every Windows PC at risk, says Secunia
• Moving to a start-up? Fasten your seatbelt
• License server glitch exposes SonicWall users to e-mail security threats
• More top stories 

The Security Zone With the mobility of employees and the ease with which external devices can be brought in and out of a network, continuing to build your security plan for network servers and clients is a must. Fortunately, there is much that organizations can do to protect themselves from attacks - internal and external. Having the right policies, procedures and server configurations is critical... Learn more in The Security Zone See All Zones

Fired up about IT? Join Sharkbait and share your true tales of IT. SharkBait is the place for you to sound off about everything IT – the good, the bad, and the rest of the weird stuff you deal with every day. New baits

"Turning information into a Competitive Advantage" Companies today are realizing that competitive advantage is harder to sustain when based solely on gains in productivity and cost efficiency. The focus is shifting to invest more in business optimization initiatives which rely on trusted information to develop new insights that deliver better business results. But how can this be done efficiently in a business environment across multiple applications and processes. The answer is an Information Agenda - an innovative approach to transforming business information into a strategic asset for competitive advantage. View this webcast now!  See more Webcasts

Dan Tynan Today's Internet has been brought to you by porn YouTube and Ning are trying to shed adult-oriented content to appeal to mainstream advertisers. Will it work? ... [more]