Intel said it will spin out its Wind River Systems software division to financial giant TPG for an undisclosed price. The chip maker bought Wind River Systems for $884 million in 2009, and now it’s ready to send it out of the nest.

Wind River makes embedded operating systems and other software that keeps aircraft flying and industrial robots humming. The deal is not so different from last year, when Intel spun off half of its McAfee antivirus division to TPG at a total valuation of $4.2 billion.

Alameda, California-based Wind River will continue to be led by Wind River president Jim Douglas and the existing management team after the deal closes sometime in the second quarter of 2018.

“Our technology team is focused on backing strong, market-leading companies in growing industries,” said Nehal Raj, partner and head of technology investing at TPG, in a statement. “We see a tremendous market opportunity in industrial software driven by the convergence of the Internet of Things (IoT), intelligent devices and edge computing. As a market leader with a strong product portfolio, Wind River is well positioned to benefit from these trends. We are excited about the prospects for Wind River as an independent company, and plan to build on its strong foundation with investments in both organic and inorganic growth.”

For nearly 40 years, Wind River has built a real-time operating system that forms the bedrock of safety and security for critical infrastructure, including manufacturing plants, medical devices, aircraft, railway, automobiles, and communications networks.

Wind River’s products and solutions enable engineers, developers, manufacturers, and system integrators to build intelligent connected devices, sensors, gateways, and networks that unlock machine data and connect it to cloud and IT environments.

“This acquisition will establish Wind River as a leading independent software provider uniquely positioned to advance digital transformation within critical infrastructure segments with our comprehensive edge to cloud portfolio,” said Douglas, in a statement. “At the same time, TPG will provide Wind River with the flexibility and financial resources to fuel our many growth opportunities as a standalone software company that enables the deployment of safe, secure, and reliable intelligent systems.”

“This move is designed to sharpen our focus on growth opportunities that align to Intel’s data-centric strategy,” said Tom Lantzsch, senior vice president and general manager of the Internet of Things Group at Intel, in a statement. “Wind River will remain an important ecosystem partner, and we will continue to collaborate on critical software-defined infrastructure opportunities to advance an autonomous future. We expect this transition will be seamless for our mutual customers and partners.”

By: DocMemory
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