McAfee IPO Could Value Company at a Whopping $8 Billion

McAfee reportedly is advancing in its plans to once again become a public company, after the success of CrowdStrike and other cybersecurity initial public offerings (IPOs).

McAfee has hired underwriters, including Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, to pursue an IPO that could take place this fall, according to Bloomberg. The McAfee IPO could raise at least $1 billion.

McAfee, partly owned by Intel, hopes the IPO will value the company at at least $8 billion. That’s up from previous reports that it could value the company at more than $5 billion.

McAfee spokesperson Jaime Le said her company isn’t commenting.

Ovum’s Eric Parizo

Eric Parizo, senior analyst with Ovum, tells Channel Partners the timing of a McAfee IPO is likely more about “taking advantage of macroeconomic conditions; [for example], a strong stock market, an overall strong economy, and very strong recent IPOs for security providers.”

McAfee has made progress on cash flow since its Skyhigh Networks acquisition through synergistic business realignments, and it has shown strategic progress with the launch of its MVision set of cloud-based security solutions, Parizo said.

If McAfee’s IPO reaches an $8 billion valuation, that would top the $7.7 billion price Intel paid for the cybersecurity business in 2010. Intel rebranded the company Intel Security.

By 2016, Intel had sold a 51 percent majority stake of Intel Security to TPG for $3.1 billion, and then the company began operating privately as McAfee. Thoma Bravo then acquired a minority stake in the joint venture.