6 ms·

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

by jjcm 6y ago

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. 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 a.) pay back a previous loan b.) "the remainder for working capital and other general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of, or investment in complementary products, technologies, solutions, or businesses, although we have no present commitments or agreements to enter into any acquisitions or investments." This really looks like a last-ditch effort to salvage the company and pay off a loan they couldn't.

edoceo 6y ago
B is boilerplate. Basically saying "we'll use the money for smart things". Everyone I've ever met seeking capital says this, I'm sure it's been in every S-1 I've read and I said the same words when I was seeking capital. Oh, and it's non-binding so it's still possible to use the money for dumb things.
technion 6y ago
Just to expand on this, the "McAfee SECURE" logo was sold to PathDefender (not TrustedSite) and all those McAfee logos you see on websites aren't operated by McAfee any more.
- _fat_santa 6y ago
  Every time I find one of those "McAfee SECURE" logos I cringe because they are so tacky. Like please tell me exactly how MacAfee is keeping me safe on this website.
  - WorldPeas 6y ago
    I doubt they even do a proper pentest evaluation, they just say "oh this site looks reputable" and slap it on.
peteretep 6y ago
> really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee Sorry to be glib, but: anyone who thinks the offering price is a discount against future value. Clearly the company has _some_ revenue sources still? You could believe the company was going to be gone in five years and still think it was a good buy at the price offered.
- WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
  I went to church (5yr ago) with a guy who was a VP in their corporate division. There was a decent detection software that they had bought up years before (Asomething) that they bundled into their edge product. That product apparently generated a lot of income.
abacadaba 6y ago
My mom just bought a laptop, it came with McAffee. All the Windows laptops at work still run McAffee. Presumably as means to decrease productivity as much as possible, or I guess it must check some box somewhere, got me.
- judge2020 6y ago
  Best Buy and similar retailers bundle AV with the computer, and IIRC it's often impossible to not have it pre-installed (since Windows installs it at the OEM's request). The only way around this is using recovery media (bootable usb/cd) and NOT the "reset to factory" setting in Windows 10's recovery settings.
  - calvano915 6y ago
    For a while now, Windows 10 has been able to reset to factory and remove all bundled apps via the Fresh Start reset option (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026602/windows-10-give-your-pc-a-fresh-start https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026602/windows-10-...). I've never tested to verify how well it works, and I don't think it prevents apps that Microsoft wants to include like Candy Crush.
    - judge2020 6y ago
      You're right, although figuring out the correct path to perform this is confusing since there's a "reset" option (that does remove your personal data incl. files) that simply uses the pre-configured windows image, which Dell/etc modify to include the bundled software: https://superuser.com/q/1236716/543570 https://superuser.com/q/1236716/543570
asdasfasdfasdf 6y ago
>Their original founder is outspoken against them Would anyone on the planet take investment advice from John McAfee?
mbesto 6y ago
> Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. Serious question - where exactly do you see this strategy being communicated specifically? Or is just purely anecdotal?
nevi-me 6y ago
My work company (global company with offices in every region) uses them. An oldish version of the thing, likely mandated by head office in the US (I'm in Africa). The antivirus routinely uses 100% of the CPU for hours in a day. Our machines are so locked down with other products, one would wonder if the McAfee stuff is even useful. I have tinnitus because of laptop fans at work. A few of us who question IT practises are convinced that there must be something shady going on, as there are many better alternative. Heck, the default Microsoft option is good enough these days.
- kibibyte 6y ago
  Silly compliance checkbox perhaps? I'm vaguely aware that certain PCI standards require organizations to install anti-virus software with specific requirements.
  - kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
    Windows Defender checks that box other than hogging the CPU.
- irjustin 6y ago
  > I have tinnitus because of laptop fans at work. This seems unlikely, but on the off chance - ear plugs or concert ear plugs[0]? Concert earplugs ideally attenuate without changing the sound (not realistic, i know). Or a really good set of active noise cancelling headphones, in-ear monitors? I do question the laptop fans being the root cause of tinnitus since there'd have to be so so many... are you in a server room of laptops running at full strength? Regardless, protect your hearing! [0] https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-earplugs-for-concerts/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-earplugs-for...
  - nevi-me 6y ago
    I'll try what you're suggesting. To give you a feel, one evening in the office when I turned off my laptop; colleagues stood up and asked what loud noise just turned off. From that day, we noticed that our laptops were loud because of the fans. Sometimes the noise blends in because of AC and generally noise office. But the pitch is very high, and it's because CPU @ 60+ because the McAfee web control thing is running even though one has no browser open. IT haven't been helpful, to the point where against compliance, a few of us being our own laptops to work, and use company ones here and there
judge2020 6y ago
John McAfee is probably too far removed for investors to be the slightest bit concerned, outside of PR issues it might cause. https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.cnet.com/news/john-mcafee-released-from-confinement/ https://www.cnet.com/news/john-mcafee-released-from-confinem... https://decrypt.co/27447/john-mcafee-virtual-blockchain-talk https://decrypt.co/27447/john-mcafee-virtual-blockchain-talk
jcrawfordor 6y ago
McAfee has significant market share in enterprise, where they've built a product that isn't necessarily good but largely meets compliance and management requirements more easily and more inexpensively than the built-in Windows features. What I mean here are remote management and monitoring features, across AV, host firewall, host IDS, DLP, SIEM, etc. I don't mean to defend McAfee as their products are, across the board, pretty terrible. But I think most of their revenue comes from a market that Microsoft has, so far, largely chosen not to take on: enterprise security departments with significant remote management and compliance requirements. You can only approach what McAfee provides with Microsoft products, and you'd need AD, SCCM and the whole nine yards (probably Azure AD and InTune these days). McAfee's major competition in this area is Symantec with Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP). There aren't a lot of other vendors with an all-in-one solution. Consider, for example, that McAfee holds the contract with the Department of Defense for HBSS which is McAfee's endpoint solution with custom tweaks for DoD requirements.
kspacewalk2 6y ago
>Their original founder is outspoken against them Given the... ahem... curious life journey[0] of said founder, I think that takes away approximately zero credibility from the company he left in 1994. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues
- eps 6y ago
  He is a juicy character, but in this particular case his opinion matches that of the industry... which is to never touch anything McAfee-made even with a long pole.
  - hexbinencoded 6y ago
    An unhappy choice of words considering what he promised to do if BTC doesn't reach $1M by the end of the year. Somehow, I don't think he will bust out the jalapeño ketchup, relish, and spicy mustard, but will make some excuses. He's a media whore who always talks but never follows-through on anything.
- wongarsu 6y ago
  I see it more as "even the very ... adventurous McAfee sees the need to distance himself from his old company"
dang 6y ago
(Can you please not use Unicode pseudo-fonts for emphasis in HN comments? We try to avoid visual gimmicks here. I've replaced the Math Bold Italic, or whatever that was, with standard italics, using asterisks as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc.)

by jjcm 6y ago

edoceo 6y ago

B is boilerplate. Basically saying "we'll use the money for smart things". Everyone I've ever met seeking capital says this, I'm sure it's been in every S-1 I've read and I said the same words when I was seeking capital. Oh, and it's non-binding so it's still possible to use the money for dumb things.

technion 6y ago

Just to expand on this, the "McAfee SECURE" logo was sold to PathDefender (not TrustedSite) and all those McAfee logos you see on websites aren't operated by McAfee any more.

_fat_santa 6y ago
Every time I find one of those "McAfee SECURE" logos I cringe because they are so tacky. Like please tell me exactly how MacAfee is keeping me safe on this website.
- WorldPeas 6y ago
  I doubt they even do a proper pentest evaluation, they just say "oh this site looks reputable" and slap it on.

peteretep 6y ago

> really wonder who's going to buy in to McAfee Sorry to be glib, but: anyone who thinks the offering price is a discount against future value. Clearly the company has _some_ revenue sources still? You could believe the company was going to be gone in five years and still think it was a good buy at the price offered.

WarOnPrivacy 6y ago
I went to church (5yr ago) with a guy who was a VP in their corporate division. There was a decent detection software that they had bought up years before (Asomething) that they bundled into their edge product. That product apparently generated a lot of income.

abacadaba 6y ago

My mom just bought a laptop, it came with McAffee. All the Windows laptops at work still run McAffee. Presumably as means to decrease productivity as much as possible, or I guess it must check some box somewhere, got me.

judge2020 6y ago
Best Buy and similar retailers bundle AV with the computer, and IIRC it's often impossible to not have it pre-installed (since Windows installs it at the OEM's request). The only way around this is using recovery media (bootable usb/cd) and NOT the "reset to factory" setting in Windows 10's recovery settings.
- calvano915 6y ago
  For a while now, Windows 10 has been able to reset to factory and remove all bundled apps via the Fresh Start reset option (https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026602/windows-10-give-your-pc-a-fresh-start https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026602/windows-10-...). I've never tested to verify how well it works, and I don't think it prevents apps that Microsoft wants to include like Candy Crush.
  - judge2020 6y ago
    You're right, although figuring out the correct path to perform this is confusing since there's a "reset" option (that does remove your personal data incl. files) that simply uses the pre-configured windows image, which Dell/etc modify to include the bundled software: https://superuser.com/q/1236716/543570 https://superuser.com/q/1236716/543570

asdasfasdfasdf 6y ago

>Their original founder is outspoken against them Would anyone on the planet take investment advice from John McAfee?

mbesto 6y ago

> Their revenue growth with their current strategy is purely optimized for short term growth with catastrophic long term outlook. Serious question - where exactly do you see this strategy being communicated specifically? Or is just purely anecdotal?

nevi-me 6y ago

My work company (global company with offices in every region) uses them. An oldish version of the thing, likely mandated by head office in the US (I'm in Africa). The antivirus routinely uses 100% of the CPU for hours in a day. Our machines are so locked down with other products, one would wonder if the McAfee stuff is even useful. I have tinnitus because of laptop fans at work. A few of us who question IT practises are convinced that there must be something shady going on, as there are many better alternative. Heck, the default Microsoft option is good enough these days.

kibibyte 6y ago
Silly compliance checkbox perhaps? I'm vaguely aware that certain PCI standards require organizations to install anti-virus software with specific requirements.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  Windows Defender checks that box other than hogging the CPU.
irjustin 6y ago
> I have tinnitus because of laptop fans at work. This seems unlikely, but on the off chance - ear plugs or concert ear plugs[0]? Concert earplugs ideally attenuate without changing the sound (not realistic, i know). Or a really good set of active noise cancelling headphones, in-ear monitors? I do question the laptop fans being the root cause of tinnitus since there'd have to be so so many... are you in a server room of laptops running at full strength? Regardless, protect your hearing! [0] https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-earplugs-for-concerts/ https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-earplugs-for...
- nevi-me 6y ago
  I'll try what you're suggesting. To give you a feel, one evening in the office when I turned off my laptop; colleagues stood up and asked what loud noise just turned off. From that day, we noticed that our laptops were loud because of the fans. Sometimes the noise blends in because of AC and generally noise office. But the pitch is very high, and it's because CPU @ 60+ because the McAfee web control thing is running even though one has no browser open. IT haven't been helpful, to the point where against compliance, a few of us being our own laptops to work, and use company ones here and there

judge2020 6y ago

John McAfee is probably too far removed for investors to be the slightest bit concerned, outside of PR issues it might cause. https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.wired.com/2012/12/ff-john-mcafees-last-stand/ https://www.cnet.com/news/john-mcafee-released-from-confinement/ https://www.cnet.com/news/john-mcafee-released-from-confinem... https://decrypt.co/27447/john-mcafee-virtual-blockchain-talk https://decrypt.co/27447/john-mcafee-virtual-blockchain-talk

jcrawfordor 6y ago

McAfee has significant market share in enterprise, where they've built a product that isn't necessarily good but largely meets compliance and management requirements more easily and more inexpensively than the built-in Windows features. What I mean here are remote management and monitoring features, across AV, host firewall, host IDS, DLP, SIEM, etc. I don't mean to defend McAfee as their products are, across the board, pretty terrible. But I think most of their revenue comes from a market that Microsoft has, so far, largely chosen not to take on: enterprise security departments with significant remote management and compliance requirements. You can only approach what McAfee provides with Microsoft products, and you'd need AD, SCCM and the whole nine yards (probably Azure AD and InTune these days). McAfee's major competition in this area is Symantec with Symantec Endpoint Protection (SEP). There aren't a lot of other vendors with an all-in-one solution. Consider, for example, that McAfee holds the contract with the Department of Defense for HBSS which is McAfee's endpoint solution with custom tweaks for DoD requirements.

kspacewalk2 6y ago

>Their original founder is outspoken against them Given the... ahem... curious life journey[0] of said founder, I think that takes away approximately zero credibility from the company he left in 1994. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee#Legal_issues

eps 6y ago
He is a juicy character, but in this particular case his opinion matches that of the industry... which is to never touch anything McAfee-made even with a long pole.
- hexbinencoded 6y ago
  An unhappy choice of words considering what he promised to do if BTC doesn't reach $1M by the end of the year. Somehow, I don't think he will bust out the jalapeño ketchup, relish, and spicy mustard, but will make some excuses. He's a media whore who always talks but never follows-through on anything.
wongarsu 6y ago
I see it more as "even the very ... adventurous McAfee sees the need to distance himself from his old company"

dang 6y ago

(Can you please not use Unicode pseudo-fonts for emphasis in HN comments? We try to avoid visual gimmicks here. I've replaced the Math Bold Italic, or whatever that was, with standard italics, using asterisks as described at https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc https://news.ycombinator.com/formatdoc.)