Symantec brings VeriSign aboard

Symantec has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VeriSign’s identity and authentication business, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service.

The combination of VeriSign’s security products, services and recognition as the most trusted brand online and Symantec’s leading security solutions and widespread distribution will enable Symantec to deliver on its vision of a world where people have simple and secure access to their information from anywhere.

‚With the anonymity of the Internet and the evolving threat landscape, people and organisations are struggling to maintain confidence in the security of their interactions, information and identities online. At the same time, people’s personal and professional lives have converged and they want to use their various digital devices to access information wherever they are without jeopardising their privacy,‚ said Enrique Salem, president and CEO, Symantec.

‚IT is faced with the challenge of giving users the appropriate access, while ensuring that corporate data is not at risk. We believe the solution to this dilemma lies in the ubiquity of identity-based security. With the combined products and reach from Symantec and VeriSign, we are poised to drive the adoption of identity security as the means to provide simple and secure access to anything from anywhere, to prevent identity fraud and to make online experiences more user-friendly and hassle-free.‚

Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will purchase the specific assets from VeriSign, including the majority stake in VeriSign Japan, for a purchase price of approximately $1.28 billion in cash. Symantec expects the transaction to be 9 cents dilutive to non-GAAP earnings per share in fiscal year 2011, due to the purchase price accounting write down of deferred revenue, and accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share in the September 2011 quarter. The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the September quarter.

Enabling a New Vision of Computing

Through this acquisition, Symantec can help businesses incorporate identity security into a comprehensive framework so that IT can confidently and securely adopt new computing models, from cloud computing to social networking and mobile computing to user-owned devices, that promise operational efficiencies and freedom of choice for their employees and customers. That framework is based on five imperatives that Symantec is enabling as part of its new vision of computing and includes:

· Identity security: proving that people and sites are who they say they are

· Mobile and other device security: securing mobile and other devices and the information on them.

· Information protection: protecting information from loss, attack, theft and misuse and ensuring the ability to recover that information.

· Context and relevance: delivering information that is relevant to people in both their personal and professional roles.

¬∑ Cloud security: ensuring the secure delivery of applications and information from both public and private clouds Ease-of-use, speed-of-delivery and user-driven preferences are the new imperatives in today’s workplace.

People whose personal and professional lives have converged onto their digital devices increasingly expect the freedom to work from anywhere using their own devices, to use any application and to collaborate with anybody in their social network to effectively get their jobs done and simultaneously live their network-enriched lives.

IT departments struggle to meet user expectations with simple, secure and cost-effective solutions. Cloud computing can provide instantaneous scale and delivery of applications and desktops by enabling businesses to leverage services from the cloud instead of deploying applications on premise. Identity-based security gives IT the assurance that as information moves in and out of the cloud it is always protected – across any device and between the network and devices they control and those that they don’t. The user’s identity drives what information they can access and how it can be used and shared, independent of the device or application.