RSA Security has announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Securant Technologies, a privately held company that develops and delivers the award-winning ClearTrust authorisation solution.
The consideration for the acquisition is $136.5 million in cash, plus acquisition costs. RSA Security will account for this transaction using purchase accounting. It is anticipated that the closing will occur in August 2001, subject to customary closing conditions, including obtaining required governmental approvals.
RSA Security expects this transaction to add approximately $3 to $4 million to revenue of its core operating business in Q3, $5 million to $7 million in Q4, and $35 million to $40 million in 2002. The company expects that in Q3 this transaction will be dilutive to the earnings of its core operating business in the range of $0.01 to $0.03, breakeven to accretive by up to $0.02 in Q4 of 2001, and accretive by $0.05 to $0.08 cents in 2002, excluding goodwill amortisation.
"Authorisation has always been part of RSA Security`s mission to enable secure e-business by ensuring the authenticity of people, devices and transactions," said Art Coviello, CEO and president at RSA Security.
"This acquisition will help us fulfil that mission. We started with RSA SecurID authentication solutions to help organisations ensure the identity of users. We are adding the ClearTrust authorisation solution to enable organisations to control what those users see or do once they have been authenticated. RSA BSAFE encryption software is designed to ensure the privacy and integrity of information and our RSA Keon PKI solutions are designed to ensure the integrity of the transactions users have been authorised to conduct."
"Authorisation is an important part of enabling e-commerce, and a natural complement to RSA Security`s current capabilities," said Charles Kolodgy, research manager at IDC. "Securant is a technology leader in this segment, and RSA Security`s acquisition should enable the company to offer even stronger authorisation solutions. This move should add a healthy dose of competition to the market, which can help the segment grow and expand technology innovation."
"RSA Security`s acquisition of Securant is a very positive step for the company," said Dr Verena Salzmann, consultant at research firm DataMonitor. "Adding an authorisation solution is an organic move that extends the company`s product range."
New product to serve expanding market
RSA Security believes this acquisition will enable it to provide leadership in the growing authorisation market segment.
According to the research firm IDC, the Web-based authorisation market segment is expected to grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 70 percent over the next four years. This increase is being driven by organisations that need to both expand the number and types of users who can access their networks, applications and Web sites, and at the same time, consolidate their numerous Web sites under a comprehensive portal management system.
Acquiring Securant enables the company to offer an award-winning authorisation product that is also a natural complement to RSA Security`s authentication, PKI and encryption solutions.
Compared with other authorisation solutions, ClearTrust has been recognised for the following primary business benefits:
* Total solution scalability;
* Speed of deployment;
* Intuitive and cost-effective user management; and
* Open, interoperable Java-based architecture with full LDAP integration.
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