Although everything seemed to be going smoothly for Intel following the announcement that it would be buying security-expert McAfee, the latest rumours suggest that the deal might have hit a bit of a roadblock.
Nothing is official yet, but the Wall Street Journal (subscription required) claims that the European Union's antitrust regulators have privately expressed concerns during the preliminary review of the deal. If anything comes of these concerns, a full investigation could be launched, bringing the acquisition to a grinding halt.
Apparently the major issue involves the possibility of CPUs with embedded virus protection. Given Intel's dominance of the microprocessor market, other firms in the security market could be effectively prevented from providing a competing solution. There's also the possibility that McAfee software could be given an architectural advantage, allowing it to offer far superior performance to competing solutions on Intel hardware.
According to the source, the Commission has sent multiple questionnaires to rival security companies to gather opinions on the deal. It then has until January 12 to decide whether or not a full investigation will be necessary.
Intel has largely denied to comment, instead referring to a statement (PDF) from Vice President of Investor Relations Kevin Sellers. The note points out that "all required pre-close regulatory filings around the world have been made and the matter is now under review in those respective jurisdictions. We expect that the deal will close some time in the first half of 2011".
On top of delaying the process, an investigation by the Commission could potentially block the deal all together. However, it's much more likely that the regulators would impose conditions or changes that would aim to protect the open market in the EU while allowing the deal to go ahead.
