Gemalto, a digital security services provider based in Netherlands, is set to buy the U.S.-based data protection specialist SafeNet for $890 million, it was announced last week. The acquisition will directly expand their customer base to some of the largest US companies boosting their earnings and reach.
“The opportunity to acquire SafeNet has come at exactly the right time,” Gemalto Chief Executive Olivier Piou said. “This will enable us to further accelerate the deployment of strong security solutions in the enterprise sector, and expand our technologies and growth opportunities in protecting online access,” he added.
SafeNet’s data protection technology provides security to 80% of the world’s intra-bank fund transfers and the company has 25,000 customers which include governments and corporations such as Bank of America, Cisco, Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Gemalto has signed a definitive agreement to buy all of SafeNet’s shares from private equity firm Vector Capital, using its available cash and credit facilities. This deal furthers Gemalto’s operating profit by around 10% in 2017 which reported €2.4 billion ($3.21 billion) in revenue last year.
Amidst rising number of data-breaches, there has been an ever-growing demand of products that safeguard sensitive digital information, with Gemalto claiming that so far this year nearly 400 million digital data records have been lost or stolen. Gemalto believes that SafeNet’s network data protection offering, which includes cryptographic systems used in cloud-based security, was a good fit with its authentication technology and that the tie-in would reinforce their position in the market.
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(Image Credit: Peter Shanks)
