McAfee Antivirus Software Founder John McAfee Dies In Prison
McAfee Antivirus Software Founder John McAfee Dies In Prison. John McAfee, the creator of the eponymous antivirus software, was found dead Wednesday in prison outside Barcelona. He was 75 years old. Over the past decade, McAfee gained notoriety for his ranting on social media, his involvement in a Central American criminal investigation and accusations from U.S. authorities that he was involved with pumping and dumping crypto currencies. McAfee was discovered dead in his prison cell hours after Spain’s National Court approved his extradition to the U.S. over multiple tax fraud charges.
According to Yahoo News, he was found by security personnel at the Brians 2 prison in northeast Spain, according to a spokesperson of the Supreme Court of Catalonia. Before his legal turmoil, McAfee was a pioneer of the cyber security industry. He founded McAfee Corp. in 1987 in Santa Clara, California, and led the company as it dominated the market for antivirus protection of personal computers.
McAfee Corp. formerly known as McAfee Associates, Inc. from 1987 to 1997 and 2004 to 2014, Network Associates Inc. from 1997–2004, and Intel Security Group from 2014 to 2017) is an American global computer security software company headquartered in Santa Clara, California. The company was purchased by Intel in February 2011 and became part of the Intel Security division. On September 7, 2016, Intel announced a strategic deal with TPG Capital to convert Intel Security into a joint venture between both companies called McAfee. That deal closed on April 3, 2017. Thoma Bravo took a minority stake in the new company, and Intel maintains a 49% stake.
The company was founded in 1987 as McAfee Associates, named for its founder John McAfee, who resigned from the company in 1994. McAfee was incorporated in the state of Delaware in 1992. The company was renamed Network Associates Inc. in December 1997. The company acquired Network General, PGP Corporation and Helix Software. The company returned to its original name in July 2004. It restructured, beginning with the sale of its Magic Solutions business to Remedy, a subsidiary of BMC Software early in the year. In mid-2004, the company sold the Sniffer Technologies business to a venture capital backed firm named Network General (the same name as the original owner of Sniffer Technologies), and changed its name back to McAfee to reflect its focus on security-related technologies.
