VASCO buys Netherland’s DigiNotar
12 January, 2011
category: Corporate, Digital ID
VASCO Data Security International Inc. announced its acquisition of the Internet trust services specialist DigiNotar B.V. of Beverwijk, The Netherlands. VASCO acquired DigiNotar in stock and asset purchase for aggregated cash consideration of $12.9 million. The acquisition was financed from VASCO’s cash balances and is expected to have a slightly dilutive impact on earnings in fiscal 2011.
VASCO believes that the acquisition of DigiNotar is an step in the evolution of its digital signature/PKI product and services offerings. A PKI enables users of a basically unsecure public network such as the Internet to securely and privately exchange data and money through the use of a public and a private cryptographic key pair that is obtained and shared through a trusted authority. The public key infrastructure provides for a digital certificate that can identify an individual or an organization and directory services that can store and, when necessary, revoke the certificates.
DigiNotar, founded in 1998, is a privately-owned company with a customer base existing primarily of citizens, government institutions and other professional services organizations, primarily based in the Netherlands.
As a trust services provider, DigiNotar is an independent, certified, trusted organization that facilitates electronic commerce and communications by issuing digital certificates or PKI identities and authenticating persons conducting business over the Internet using those digital certificates. In addition to providing Internet trust services, DigiNotar provides various electronic signing services, document registration and storage services, and SSL-certificates to private companies.
VASCO and DigiNotar have developed a strong link as solution partners. DigiNotar developed the EazyID concept, an initiative aiming to set up a national consumer authentication platform in The Netherlands in cooperation with renowned companies. The EazyID concept makes use of VASCO’s DIGIPASS/VACMAN authentication technology.
