Intel Corp. will sell its LANDesk family of IT management products to The LANDesk Acquisition Corp., a new company set up by Vector Capital and vSpring Capital, the companies announced Wednesday.
The new business will purchase products including the LANDesk Management Suite, LANDesk Client and Server Manager, and LANDesk Asset Service, among others. Additional assets and intellectual property will also be acquired under the deal.
Intel will retain a minority equity position in the business, which will be managed through Intel Capital, the chip giant’s investment division. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The LANDesk products help IT staff manage networks of computers connected to a local network. Users can take an inventory of PCs connected to a LAN, remotely manage desktops through a single client and roll out software updates to PCs over the LAN using the software.
Joe Wang, formerly a vice-president at Symantec Corp., will be named chief executive officer of the new company, which will have its North American headquarters in the Salt Lake City area. John Sutherland, who was general manager of the business for Intel, will stay on with the new company as vice-president of operations.
About 150 employees work for Intel’s LANDesk business unit worldwide. The current management team will be offered positions with the new company. Intel also plans to offer transition services to existing LANDesk customers until the deal closes, which is expected to happen at the end of September.
Intel, in Santa Clara, Calif., said during a conference call presenting its second-quarter earnings in July that it would be seeking certain “business divestments” that would help reduce its operating costs. Prior to that announcement, Intel exited its Web hosting business in June.
