HID to acquire ActivIdentity

The cash transaction prices ActiveIdentity shares at US$ 3.25 (EUR 2.33) per share, or approximately US$ 162 million (EUR 116 million). HID Global says this per share price represents a premium of approximately 43% over the closing price of ActivIdentity shares on Oct. 8 and a premium of 48% over the 20-day average of closing prices. ActivIdentity will become part of Assa Abloy’s HID Global business and ActivIdentity products will provide the foundation for HID Global’s logical access offering.

ActivIdentity Corporation is a global company involved in strong authentication and credential management, providing solutions to confidently establish a person's identity when interacting digitally. For more than two decades the company's experience has been leveraged by security-minded organizations in banking and finance, government and enterprises of all sizes. The company's customers have issued more than 100 million credentials, securing the holder's digital identity. The addition of ActivIdentity’s strong authentication, credential management, security client, and authentication device products and technologies to HID Global’s Identity and Access Management business will result in a unique portfolio of converged access solutions for HID Global and ActivIdentity customers.

ActivIdentity is headquartered in Silicon Valley, California with offices in France, UK, Germany, Sweden, Australia and Japan and employs over 200 people.

The company had originally been created as ActivCard in June 1987 in France, and from the origin specialized in digital identity infrastructure technology. The company relocated to the US in 2002, and changed its name to ActivIdentity in 2006 to better reflect the company’s broad portfolio of authentication solutions. Over time, ActivCard and then ActivIdentity acquired several technology companies: Authentic8, an expert in PKI in 2001, Ankari, a provider of security software in 2001, Aspace Solutions, a provider of multi-channel authentication and authorization solutions to the banking industry in 2004, Protocom, a developer of enterprise single sign-on (ESSO) in 2005, Corestreet, an expert in distributed identity credential validation solutions in December 2009 (cf. Smart Insights Weekly #10-02).

HID Global had been created in 1991 in the USA as Hughes Identification Devices, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft. In 1995, it changed its name to HID Corporation when it became a subsidiary of Palomar Technologies. The company was acquired in 2000 by Assa Abloy, and became part of Assa Abloy Identification Technology Group (ITG). HID Global was formed in 2006 with the combination of HID with Fargo Electronics, Indala, Interlock and Buga. In 2008, HID Global merged with Assa Abloy ITG activities: ACG, Aontec, Sokymat, Novacard do Brasil, Omnikey, and VisionCard (cf. Smart Insights #08-10). Headquartered in Irvine, California, HID Global has over 2,000 employees worldwide and operates international offices that support more than 100 countries.