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Eccentric millionaire John McAfee caused Intel to speed up its decision to rebrand McAfee Antivirus to Intel Security, says the boss of rival software vendor Kaspersky.
Intel acquired McAfee back in 2010, and announced it would rebrand the software to Intel Security earlier this month.
Eugene Kaspersky believes the change was always going to happen, but the actions of John McAfee may have accelerated this.
Speaking to PCR at the opening of Kaspersky’s new London offices, he said: "The moment we learnt about the Intel and McAfee acquisition, the first thing we thought was, okay, McAfee is going to be renamed to Intel. It was obvious.
"When an acquisition happens, sooner or later they change the brand. There are very few exceptions. Sometimes of course the company which acquires another company takes that brand, like United and Continental Airlines. Continental merged with United and took the brand United.
"So it was really just a matter of time. Maybe John McAfee accelerated that a little bit, but not too much."
Perhaps it had something to do with him being apparently wanted for murder and going on the run, or being sued by his dead neighbour’s daughter. Maybe it was this bizarre video where John McAfee teaches you how to uninstall McAfee Antivirus.
Of Intel’s decision to rebrand McAfee Antivirus to Intel Security, John McAfee said he was "elated".
"I am now everlastingly grateful to Intel for freeing me from this terrible association with the worst software on the planet," he said.
"These are not my words, but the words of millions of irate users."
