PROCESSOR MANUFACTURER INTEL has agreed a massive €6bn cash deal to buy the security and anti-virus firm McAfee.

The deal will see Intel pay $48 (€37.40) per share for the security company, compared to the $29.93 closing price for McAfee shares on the NASDAQ yesterday evening.

Unsurprisingly, McAfee shares have taken an extraordinary spike this morning and were trading at $47.16 – an increase of 57.6% – at the time of writing.

It shares had been worth similar amounts as recently as the end of April, when the company revised its Q2 earnings significantly downward, but recovered some of its value when its ultimate Q2 earnings were higher than its downward forecasts.

Intel said that the deal would reduce its own net earnings in the first year after takeover, but that the takeover would significantly augment its own security services. Its own shares are down slightly today as a result.

It added that the takeover reflected how security was now a concern at the very core of computing, joining energy efficiency and connectivity as the ‘third pillar’ of computing requirement.

The processing giant – which employs over 4,000 people at its campus in Leixlip – said in its earnings reports for 2009 that it had almost $4bn in the bank and another $5.2bn in short-term investments – meaning it will probably have to seek a reasonable amount of financing to help fund the deal.