Symantec to acquire VeriSign business

Vendor splashes out more cash on authentication.

Symantec

, the AV vendor with a reputation for snapping up other companies, has announced its purchase of

VeriSign

‘s authentication services business.

The $1.28 billion cash deal – expected to close in the quarter ending in September – follows hot on the heals of two other encryption-related purchases as the company completed deals to acquire

PGP

and

GuardianEdge


earlier this month

.

Symantec

says it plans to combine

VeriSign

‘s SSL certificate services with its own protection suite for servers, while the

VeriSign Identity Protection

user authentication service will complement its

Identity Safe

capabilities within the

Norton

product range.

Symantec

also plans to incorporate the

VeriSign

check mark into a new logo once the transaction has completed.

The official announcement of the deal from Symantec is

here

, with more details

here

. Industry analysts express their views on the acquisition in a CNet article

here

.

Posted on 20 May 2010 by

Virus Bulletin