Network Associates Renames Itself McAfee

The security and antivirus company late Wednesday said that it has officially retired the name Network Associates and will now be known as McAfee, a recognized Network Associates brand name.

As expected, the name change arrived with the announcement that the vendor's sale of its Sniffer Technologies network management business was near completion. The final sale of Sniffer has been used as a something of a marker by the company for when the name change would become official.

As it stands, McAfee expects to close the sale of the Sniffer Technologies network management business to Silver Lake Partners and the Texas Pacific Group in the second half of July, according to McAfee, Santa Clara, Calif.

"As a company, we are at a strategic turning point, and the name change to McAfee Inc. reinforces our image as a leader in security," said George Samenuk, chairman and CEO of McAfee, in a statement.