In a surprising move today, computer hardware giant Intel purchased well-known security software company, McAfee for a staggering $7.7 billion. 

Interestingly, this sort of acquisition is not out of the ordinary as two other large mergers between software and hardware leaders have been brokered in 2010.  Per the Wall Street Journal: 

“Earlier this year, Oracle Corp. (ORCL) closed its $5.6 billion takeover of Sun Microsystems, a deal that gave the business software maker a huge presence in servers, the computers that power data centers. Similarly, computer giant Hewlett-Packard Co. (HPQ) purchased struggling Palm Inc. for its well-regarded operating system software, which it will likely use in its own mobile products. H-P also said it was buying Fortfiy Software, a software security firm.”

So what can we take from this?  I believe two things. 

1.  As Apple continues to change the game with iPhone and iPad technology, other companies are trying to play catch-up to meet the demands of increasingly technologically-savvy customers.  It is quite apparent that our economy and lives in general are moving to a mainstream mobile environment.  If companies want to survive in this highly-competitive marketplace, they are going to need products that succeed on multiple platforms with all the functional application bells and whistles.

2.  As technology becomes more advanced, so do the threats computer terrorists unleash upon our various technology networks and platforms.  As we’ve seen with popular networking site, Facebook and applications on the Android phone, new malware attacks are morphing daily and wreaking havoc upon unsuspecting victims.  If a hardware company is able to provide anti-virus protection built within their various products, it only makes the computer terrorist’s job that much more difficult. 

Don’t be surprised if you see similar mergers like this in the near future.  The software and hardware game is clearly changing.        

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About Josh
A proud graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter, Minnesota, Josh is the Editor-in-Chief of this blog and regularly contributes Friday Fun Links, RJS news and interesting technology notes. Prior to joining RJS, Josh worked at the Ronald McDonald House in Minneapolis. Outside of work, Josh enjoys the outdoors, fantasy football, classic movies, baseball and wine.