McAfee To Debut On Wall Street — For A Second Time

KEY POINTS

Thursday's launch will mark McAfee's first time on Wall Street since 2011
The company aims to raise $740M, eyeing valuation of $8.6B
McAfee posted sales of $1.4B in first half of 2020, with a profit of $31M

Cybersecurity company McAfee is coming back to Wall Street on Thursday after a nine-year absence to raise $740 million by selling 37 million shares.

The company priced its initial public offering at $20 per share Wednesday. At this price, the company will command a market capitalization of about $8.6 billion. It will start trading on Nasdaq under the ticker MCFE.

Founded in 1987, the software company first went public in 1999, where it raised $75 million with $12 a share. In 2011, the company was acquired by chipmaker Intel in a deal valued at $7.7 billion.

McAfee lost its name under Intel’s leadership for years. It was renamed when Intel sold a majority of its stake to private equity firm TPG, which now holds a 66% stake in McAfee.

Intel now has a meager 7% share, some of which it will be selling as part of the IPO. Also to benefit from the IPO are venture capital firm Thoma Bravo and Singapore-based wealth fund GIC, which have substantial stakes in the company.

McAfee’s IPO follows a series of blockbuster tech IPOs on Wall Street this year like cloud analytics company Snowflake, big data firm Palantir, and Chinese company Kingsoft Cloud.

In the first half of 2020, McAfee made sales worth $1.4 billion and a profit of $31 million, which was 9% more than the same period the previous year. In 2019, the company made net losses of $236 million. The company recently onboarded Peter Leav as the chief executive, who was previously at the helm of tech firms like BMC Software and Polycom.

The cybersecurity firm is now entering the market as an individual firm as demand is high in the U.S. for protective software from malware, spyware and viruses and other cybersecurity issues. Recent data released by cybersecurity firm Check Point suggests that there was a rise in cyber attacks across the U.S., especially COVID-19-related phishing and malware. It has been a growing concern as the country moves closer to Election Day on Nov. 3.

Founder John McAfee was in the news recently when he was arrested in Spain for tax evasion charges by the U.S. In a 55-page complaint, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) said McAfee has leveraged his fame to earn more than $23.1 million in undisclosed compensation when he promoted at least seven initial coin offerings (ICOs) among his followers.