VeriSign Buys Internet Security Firm

Digital certificate provider VeriSign, Inc. said today it acquired privately-held Internet security provider SecureIT, Inc.


VeriSign said the new addition is aimed at expanding its presence in the enterprise security market where it will provide digital certificate and PKI solutions and services for secure intranet, extranet, and electronic commerce applications.


SecureIT services include architectural consulting, integration, testing,
and education in the use of e-commerce and communications applications. The
company said it uses specialized methodologies in creating, deploying and
testing secure end-to-end solutions. It counts AT&T, CheckFree, GE and Reuters among its customers.


VeriSign said it expects to distribute SecureIT’s services via its sales
channels and the two companies will jointly develop further enhancements to
SecureIT’s educational programs. In addition, SecureIT will integrate VeriSign OnSite with its suite of security solutions and market digital certificate and PKI-enabled applications to its established customer base.


Terms of the acquisition call for VeriSign to issue 1,666,000 shares of common stock to buy all of the issued and outstanding SecureIT capital stock and assume SecureIT’s outstanding employee stock options. The purchase will be accounted for as a pooling of interests, the companies said. Additional financial details were not released.


“SecureIT has been helping enterprises secure their network
infrastructures through the use of firewalls, proxy servers, certificate
enabled web servers and other security technologies,” said Jay Chaudhry,
CEO of SecureIT, in a statement announcing the acquisition. “We think the natural next step is to expand the use of digital certificates and PKI to enable more advanced solutions such as virtual private networks and secure messaging.”


VeriSign was in the news recently when it formed a partnership with Network Associates to jointly provide cross-product support and promotion for their respective digital certificate-based security solutions.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter.

Subscribe to Daily Tech Insider for top news, trends & analysis

News Around the Web