In the late 1980s, he founded McAfee Associates, the antivirus software company. The company went public in 1992, and two years later, he sold his remaining stake, bringing his gains to about $100 million.
[He was living a great life.] But then things began to change. In 2007, Mr. McAfee sold a 10,000-square-foot home in Colorado with a view of Pike’s Peak. He had spent $25 million to buy the property and build the house. He received $5.7 million for it. When Lehman collapsed last fall, its bonds became virtually worthless. Mr. McAfee’s stock investments cost him millions more.
His remaining net worth of about $4 million makes him vastly wealthier than most Americans, of course. But he has nonetheless found himself needing cash and desperately trying to reduce his monthly expenses.
Isn’t it strange the New York Times makes it sound like he’s so good and the “system” hurt him? He had a great company, got really rich, then made bad investments, got less rich. Simple.
#38 Jesus Christ, my LORD, of course.
I wasn’t always an angel…I once lived by the adage…only the strong survive…
No longer. Now I help the weak.
#28, curmudgeon,
Great post, a big thumbs up.
Facts trump opinions any day!
(y)
This just crossed my mind. How many guys like him we will have when the Win7 comes out and the antivirus software will not be needed anymore. Or am I dreaming again?
#42 Mr Fusion
#29 bobbo
those are simply direct quotes from the NYT piece, the points it is trying to make.
McAfee’s story is just an example the reporters used.
Their graphics http://tinyurl.com/lxru23
McAfee’s response:
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/21/mcafee-responds/
He should have done it like Symantec: Make his software slow down to a crawl even the fastest machines to make people believe they’re actually running a well built, robust Antivirus software.
My daddy always said.
Keep 25% in cash.
You got to be pretty stupid to get that leveraged.
Real estate is expensive to maintain. But long term will retain value. I am talking 10 to 20 years.
NO COMMENT
I’m glad to see i’m not the only one who has seen first hand how badly his software SUX! I suspect The same Geniuses behind McAfee are the ones CREATING the viruses that plague us! NO SERIOUSLY!
Does this scenario sound familiar? We buy the “trusted McAfee” software to protect us from all the evil viruses out there. If we choose not to pay 40 bucks again after the initial 6 months, all of the sudden we’re hit by a bunch of viruses out of nowhere! And, of course, the neverending “your computer is not protected! Act now and give us more money so we can protect you!”
The software works same as the Mob, “pay up, we’ll protect you. We wouldn’t want anything BAD to happen to you now would we…”
And like the Mob, once you agree once… you can never get rid of that stupid software ever again… i tried.
Anyway, enough of my ranting
)
(ps my computers are now both happily running McAfee AND Virus free
hey john,i would like to work for you. im retired so dont need much. can relocate. alboulos@hotmail.com.
Wow, amazing comments. You people are good-for-nothing jealous scum. You are poor because you lacked either intelligence, creativity, drive, or contacts.
My grandfather was dirt poor in Louisiana and came to Marin City, California with his 4 brothers and sister. They used a converted lumber saw to cut rags for contractors and would dry them on the hillside North of the bridge. My great grandpa was run out of Marin by mafiosa for stealing their customers; collecting peoples garbage without charging. After shoot outs, he took a cash payment and started a company in Santa Rosa, Ca. My grandpa and granduncle bought him ought and now run a $20million company. Thats 50 years of hard, honest work.
My other great grandpa was orphaned at 15 due to a car accident. He graduated from Columbia and went on to becoming the CEO of International Harvester, Mack Truck, and ran IBM France for a time. His wealth and stock options translated into mostly dissipates. My white grandma lives in a ghetto apartment, my dad is a white-collar criminal, and my aunt has worked not a day in her life.
My mom is a self-made land developer. As for assets, now mostly lawsuits and judgements. In total, we are worth more than McAfee. My mum would work until 3 am of caffeine pills to get deals past. We’ve been ripped off quite a few times but have always managed to rebound. We are survivors and are going through much strife. I may have a live in, but it doesn’t mean life is not a chore.
Thinking about it, McAfee had an OK deal. He made stupid investments and was conned. I can relate. It reminds me of when that guy took $100million out of Ron Burckle(?. He claimed to be have connections with the Vatican and cheap real estate. He was a fraud and the money was spent at an unimaginable rate. Our attorney, Nick Tehin(currently serving at Lompoc prison for stealing quadriplegic’s settlement money among other things) also embezzled money from a number of projects in Marin and …
Point is, McAfee may not have worked hard as my grandpa and great grandparents, or most of you, but he saw a need for something and supplied it. Simple, short and sweet. Working yourself to the bone under the umbrella of someone else will be a waste of your efforts. If you want to make money, start your own business. Find something you’re good at. Start a law firm, realty, pastry shop, grocery store, land holding company, farm, biotech, fishing, software, retail, your choice! If you want to criticize others, be able to support your evidence.