Intel, TPG in early talks to sell McAfee to Thoma Bravo: source

[December 15, 2018]  (Reuters) - Private equity firm Thoma Bravo LLC is in early talks to buy security software company McAfee from TPG Capital and Intel Corp, a source familiar with the matter said on Friday.

McAfee computer security software is shown for sale at a computer store in San Marcos, California, U.S., May 15, 2017. REUTERS/Mike Blake

Talks are at an early stage and there is no guarantee they will lead to a deal, the source said. The talks were reported earlier by CNBC.

Intel and TPG declined to comment, while Thoma Bravo did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Intel, which paid $7.7 billion for California-based McAfee in 2011, completed the sale of a 51 percent stake in the company to TPG at a $4.2 billion enterprise value last year.

Thoma Bravo has been seeking to rapidly consolidate the cyber security sector.

In October, it announced a $2.1 billion acquisition of Imperva Inc and last month announced the acquisition of another cyber security firm called Veracode from Broadcom Inc for $950 million.

Last month, Reuters reported that Thoma Bravo had approached Symantec Corp with a takeover offer.

(Reporting by Joshua Franklin in New York and Vibhuti Sharma in Bengaluru; editing by Grant McCool)

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