Confirming months of rumors, Intel Corp. today said it will sell a majority stake in its McAfee security unit to the private equity firm TPG for $3.1 billion in cash.

The chipmaker, which had bought McAfee for $7.7 billion in 2011 in an attempt to diversify beyond its semiconductor business, will sell a 51 percent stake in McAfee to TPG, retaining a 49 percent stake in the newly independent company.

The deal, which also involves TPG making a $1.1 billion equity investment, values McAfee at $4.2 billion. That includes equity value of $2.2 billion plus net debt at McAfee of $2 billion. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of next year.

Intel said the company will be one of the world’s largest pure-play cyber security companies. The chip giant positioned the sale as part of a new strategy launched last year by its security unit to focus on the cloud and end points as security control points, in an attempt to help customers detect and respond to threats faster and more efficiently. But mainly, Intel, which announced plans last spring to lay off 12,000 employees, has been focusing its efforts on its data center business and emerging Internet of Things initiatives.

“Going forward we will continue to integrate industry-leading security and privacy capabilities in our products from the cloud to billions of smart, connected computing devices,” Intel Chief Executive Brian Krzanich (above) said in a statement. “Intel will continue our collaboration with McAfee as we offer safe and secure products to our customers.”

For its part, TPG said it has been watching the cyber security market for some time. “We have long identified the cybersecurity sector, which has experienced strong growth due to the increasing volume and severity of cyberattacks, as one of the most important areas in technology,” TPG Partner Bryan Taylor said in a statement.

Jeff Pollard, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, said in an email that Intel struggled with its security unit. “Long-term, this is clearly a better situation for McAfee, but they re-emerge from Intel Security with a gutted portfolio due to recent selloffs, and what stayed lacks feature parity and portfolio breadth when compared to competitors,” he said. “For McAfee’s customers, hopefully this signals a reinvestment in technology and services along with renewed focus on the mission of making their customers more secure.”

Other private equity firms have also been hunting cyber security firms in recent months, hoping to cash in on increasing worries about attacks. In June, Bain Capital sold Blue Coat Security to Symantec Inc. for almost twice what it paid for it a year ago. Also in June, Vista Equity Partners also bought authentication service Ping Identity, which had been preparing for an initial public offering.

Chris Young, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s Security Group, will be appointed CEO of McAfee. Through the first half of 2016, Intel’s Security Group revenue rose 11 percent to $1.1 billion, and operating income jumped 391 percent to $182 million.

In another development, McAfee founder John McAfee on Monday filed suit against Intel for the right to use his name in his new ventures.