I really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee. Their original founder is outspoken against them, their primary product is built into every OS these days, and they've been selling off their brand trust in exchange for revenue. Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook.<p>They even say they don't have a plan for what to do with their money. In their filing under "Use of Proceeds" they state their objectives with the funds are to<p>a.) pay back a previous loan<p>b.) "the remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of, or investment in complementary products, technologies, solutions, or businesses, <i>although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any acquisitions or investments</i>."<p>This really looks like a last-ditch effort to salvage the company and pay off a loan they couldn't.
I work in security and let me explain why McAfee products are so commonplace in corporate environments, even when there are vastly better alternatives out there.<p>You want an AV product? Done
You want a firewall product? Done
You want central management? Done
You want SIEM? Done
etc etc<p>Are any of their products amazing compared to the alternatives? No! Do they integrate seamlessly with each other? No! Are they cheaper than alternatives? Probably not!<p>But.<p>They provide a solution for every checkbox. And it's easy to convince management and auditors that you have done 'the right thing' by using a well known brand. And this in turn gets pass marks from the auditors.<p>A specific note about integration between products, McAfee has a history of buying good security software companies and basically destroying them. The integrations usually 'barely work' and after enough people complain and the original core devs have packed up and left, they basically scuttle the product.<p>Remember when 'Foundstone' was a vulnerability scanner that was an actual alternative to Nessus and not the consulting arm of McAfee? I do and I'm still sad they gutted it.
<i>Side-note</i>; Anti-virus software is ironically quite invasive and can be harmful to your system.<p>They bury themselves deep into the OS and often access undocumented kernel API's which can break the OS. In some cases they [1] betray your privacy in the name of security...<p>I guess it's still popular because it's often part of the bloatware on new PC's and Laptops...<p>[1] <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20703699" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20703699</a>
It's been 20 years since I vowed to uninstall McAfee (& Symantec) software from every computer I could.<p>I've been pretty consistent at keeping that promise. Probably 1k+ uninstalls.
Shouldn't the Risk Factors section include a paragraph about the risk, nay certainty, that the eponymous founder will tarnish the company's brand by expounding on his outlandish activities (e.g. <a href="https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/1067415394279936000" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/106741539427993600...</a>)?
Why on earth did Intel acquire McAfee in the first place is still a mystery to me. And I dont know how many times it has changed hand since, and now we are back to IPO.<p>I actually think Oracle would be a better fit for McAfee given their enterprise nature.
Got to wonder what the ratio will be for cocaine purchased per share. This IPO looks like it's headed for the Guinness Book of World Records, but I'd be curious to see how it stacks up with other IPOs. My bet is Uber is the overall #1, but if there's one individual who could singlehandedly shoot McAfee to the top, it's John McAffee. Less a man than a black hole for cocaine and prostitution, he's going to be pushing those numbers to new records. The only exception to this is perhaps post-Grimes Elon Musk. Not sure to what extent those 2 are stimulating the economy but they're certainly stimulating the economy for stimulants. On the other hand you have everyone else working at, what is by all accounts, a mature firm staffed with nerds working in a quiet sector.<p>At any rate, exciting news and I wish them the very best of luck.