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Intel, the US microchip giant, has announced a $7.7bn (£4.9bn) deal to buy antivirus software group McAfee.

Paul Otellini, Intel's chief executive, said the deal, the largest in his company's 42-year history, would help the company address the growing threat of hacking and viruses.

Intel yesterday offered McAfee shareholders $48 a share, a 60pc premium to the closing price on Wednesday.

Shares in McAfee jumped by 57pc to $47.04. Intel's shares dropped 3pc to $18.98.

Mr Otellini said the acquisition of McAfee, which is best known for its virus protection software, will help better incorporate security concerns into computers, mobile phones and cash machines.

"With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online," Mr Otellini said.

"In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences."

Dave DeWalt, chief executive of McAfee, said: "[This] is big news for McAfee and big news for Intel, but bigger news for our combined customers, the security industry and the future of the internet.

"The cyber threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years, with millions of new threats appearing every month.

"We are joining forces to tackle this next-generation cybersecurity issue, which impacts everyone and anything connecting to the internet."

Intel has made a string of acquisitions recently to help it expand into the smartphone market, which is dominated by microchips designed by Britain's ARM Holdings.

The McAfee deal is Intel's biggest acquisition since it bought Level One Communications for $2.2bn in 1999.

The deal follows a flurry of consolidation activity in the technology sector, including Hewlett-Packard's acquisition of Palm, the smartphone maker; and software manufacturer Oracle's $7.4bn purchase of computer hardware group Sun Microsystems.

Intel's acquisition of McAfee still requires the approval of McAfee shareholders and regulatory clearance.

London 2012 plan to charge £150 ($235) for internet access during the Olympics & Paralympics.

The Sports Journalists' Association (SJA) website revealed the scale of the charges after complaining to London 2012 officials when it emerged in April that organisers planned to charge.

The SJA pointed out that the high fees charged by organisers at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics and Paralympics had attracted worldwide negative publicity and that South African officials at the FIFA World Cup had provided free internet access for journalists covering the event.

Their plea, however, has fallen on deaf ears, despite London 2012 having an £80 million ($124 million) sponsorship deal with BT.

London 2012 claim that the charges are to pay for their "investments" in cabling every journalists’ work desk.

It is also understood that claims that they plan to raise £1.5 million through charging journalists attending the Olympics is wrong as that sum has been calculated on 10,000 media personnel signing up for internet access when, it is believed, the figure is not expected to be above 5,000.

Jayne Pearce, London 2012's head of press operations, wrote to the SJA: "A thorough review has been undertaken with regards to the needs of the media versus what can reliably be provided.

"It would have been relatively easy to provide a wireless solution at no cost.

"However, wireless is not 100 per cent reliable and simply cannot serve the sizes of media contingent we have at multiple venues at an Olympic Games.

"LOCOG will provide a cabled solution in all working environments (this represents some 6800 tabled tribune desks, some 4700 Venue Media Centre desks and some 1600 Venue Photo Centre desks).

"In the past only the large international agencies had cabled access - they paid for a dedicated ADSL line at around US$ 500-600 (£318-£832) per line!

"So all media at the London Games will have the ability to have access to cabled internet and Info+ on their laptop."

According to Pearce's letter to the SJA each journalist will receive:

* An 8 meg (both up and down speeds) internet connection for a 30-day period
* Ability to plug into each and every press desk at every tribune and at every venue media centre desk (the first Games ever to cable every seat)
* Ability for photographers to plug at each and every desk at every venue photo centre (the first Games ever to cable every desk)
* Wireless in all media lounges in all venues and in all media conference rooms in all venues
* Info+ available on laptops via this connection (known as myInfo+) - whether inside or outside a venue (again, the first Games to do this) - plus the ability to cut and paste data directly from the system
* Full technical support

The fee, unlike Vancouver, will also be a one-off charge and cover both the Olympics and Paralympics.

Pearce wrote: "By opting for cabled access where practical rather than wireless we can ensure the robustness of the service.

“While some major events have indeed opted for free access we feel that this service, at an event the sheer scale of the Summer Olympic Games, is comprehensive, inclusive of many services not provided at such events and set at a price that is reasonable and non-profit making for LOCOG.

"There are many investments made by LOCOG and its suppliers, not least the extensive cabling mentioned above, to ensure this very important service."

Source
By Duncan Mackay
www.insidethegames.biz

For those that can think back to when we used XP, (and some still do) I showed a highly modified XP operating system which had lots of utilities and programs embedded within the XP package, it was called LastXP, Then we had LastV, The Vista variant, well we now have Last0S7 ver2 64bit. released today.

Looks good and I will hopefully show it at the next Club meeting.