| Date | Event | |------|-------| | Feb 1998 | Helix Software Company acquired by Network General | | Dec 1997 | McAfee Associates merges with Network General → forms Network Associates (NAI) | | Dec 1997 | NAI acquires PGP, Inc. | | Mar 2002 | NAI discontinues PGP; assets sold back to form PGP Corporation | | Feb 2003 | NAI sells Helix’s Landesk to private equity → becomes Landesk Software (later Ivanti) | | Mar 2004 | NAI sells Network General (Sniffer) business | | Jul 2004 | Network Associates renames to McAfee, Inc. | | Apr 2010 | McAfee, Inc. announces acquisition of PGP Corporation | | Jun 2010 | McAfee completes PGP acquisition (PGP returns to McAfee) | | 2011 | Intel acquires McAfee, Inc. |
Network General was born from a Stanford University project in 1986, commercializing the first network protocol analyzer. Throughout the 1990s, "Sniffer" was the gold standard for troubleshooting Ethernet and Token Ring networks. But by 1997, Network General faced a problem: the internet was moving from monitoring traffic to securing it. The company realized that controlling endpoints (via Helix’s Landesk) combined with network visibility (Sniffer) could create a powerful "desktop-to-data center" governance suite. Thus, the Helix acquisition was meant to flesh out this vision. helix software company merge mcafee network general pgp date
The intertwined histories of Helix, Network General, McAfee, and PGP illustrate a classic boom-and-bust cycle of tech mergers. The 1997–1998 frenzy created a monolithic but dysfunctional Network Associates. The early 2000s saw a necessary disaggregation, spinning off Helix (Landesk) and PGP. Then, the 2010 re-acquisition of PGP by McAfee completed a strange circle. Today, no single vendor carries all four original names, but their DNA—in endpoint management (Ivanti), network analysis (NetScout), antivirus (Trellix), and encryption (OpenPGP)—continues to underpin modern cybersecurity. The lesson: in software, names change, but code and contracts are forever. | Date | Event | |------|-------| | Feb
On , McAfee, Inc. announced it would acquire PGP Corporation for approximately $140 million in cash. Simultaneously, McAfee also acquired Guardian Edge , another encryption firm. The irony was poetic: PGP, which had been ejected from Network Associates (pre-McAfee) in 2002, was now being reabsorbed by McAfee, the direct descendant of that original merger. The deal closed in June 2010 . announces acquisition of PGP Corporation | | Jun
PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) was created by Phil Zimmermann in 1991 as a guerilla cryptography tool to fight government restrictions on encryption. By 1996, it was commercialized as PGP, Inc. In , coincidentally the same month as the McAfee/Network General merger, Network Associates (NAI) acquired PGP, Inc. for approximately $35 million. The logic was sound: combine antivirus, network sniffing, and email encryption into a unified security suite.
Helix Software Company, founded in the mid-1980s in New York, was not originally a security company. It specialized in system utilities for Windows and NetWare environments. Its flagship product, Landesk , was revolutionary for its time—allowing administrators to inventory hardware, distribute software, and enforce desktop policies remotely. By 1997, Helix had a strong but niche position in IT asset management. However, the rise of network-borne viruses and the need for centralized control made Helix an attractive asset. In , Helix Software Company was acquired by Network General Corporation for approximately $140 million in stock. Network General, famous for the "Sniffer" protocol analyzer, wanted to pivot from purely passive network monitoring to active endpoint management.