HID Global's parent company ASSA ABLOY announced today that it has agreed to purchase authentication and credential management firm ActivIdenity. The company would be merged into the HID Global group when and if the acquisition is completed.
The move fits in line with HID Global's long-term strategy to offer not only physical, card-access types of solutions, but also logical
(computer/network) access control - the market space where ActivIdentity is specialized.
HID Global CEO and President Denis Hebert called ActivIdentity "an excellent strategic fit on several dimensions". ActivIdentity, a publically traded firm based in Silicon Valley, has offerings for online identity management, but the core of the company has been offering server and software solutions for managing the credentials and identities used for logging into an organization's network.
In a press release announcing the acquisition agreement, ActivIdentity Grant Evans Chairman and CEO said, "The combination of ActivIdentity with HID Global represents an important industry inflection point of logical access and physical access delivery capabilities. The ability to deliver such a comprehensive and innovative solution as this to our customers and partners represents a compelling ROI that has been extremely challenging to recognize in the past.
HID Global said the acquisition would likely close in December 2010. ActivIdentity posted $62 million in revenues for the fiscal year ending September 2009. The company's stock was up 37 percent in late afternoon trading following the announcement of the planned acquisition.
