Thales finds in Entrust Datacard a suitable buyer for nCipher Security

Recently, Thales announced that it would dispose of its General Purpose Hardware Security Module (GP HSM) activities. Since January 2019, these activities within Thales have been transferred to the separate independent company nCipher Security. In order to complete the acquisition of Gemalto, Thales had to divest its Gemalto business,

Now Thales has found a suitable buyer for nCipher Security. If the acquisition of Gemalto is approved and carried out by the most important competition authorities worldwide, the sale of nCipher will also take place. Then the industry will be in the hands of Entrust Datacard. This acquisition is also subject to approval by the relevant authorities, but according to Thales, this could be the last hurdle to obtaining approval for the acquisition of Gemalto within the United States.

Security Services Entrust Datacard

With this transaction, nCipher Security – with a turnover of more than 100 million euros in 2018 and more than 300 employees – will be able to continue to provide innovative solutions and services and to strengthen its position as market leader. Entrust Datacard has been providing identity-based security solutions for over 50 years and has more than 2,200 employees at 34 locations worldwide. The staff of nCipher would be attached.

Entrust Datacard offers several solutions aimed at securing and controlling important information and applications of customers. It uses GP HSMs primarily to protect both root certificates and key issuance by certification authorities. As far as Thales is concerned, Entrust Datacard is therefore a good home for nCipher.

Important step

According to Philippe Keryer, Executive Vice-President Strategy, Research and Technology at Thales, this announcement is an important step in the ongoing Gemalto acquisition process. This should be completed by the end of March 2019. We are confident that nCipher Security will leverage the expertise of Entrust Datacard, an organization dedicated to the development of safe and secure access to information, applications and networks and its global presence in Europe and North America.

And Todd Wilkinson, CEO and chairman of Entrust Datacard, says he sees nCipher as a good addition to his company’s portfolio. The Thales General Purpose HSM solution, known as nCipher Security, has a strong market position, brings exceptional internal talent and allows us to develop even more comprehensive solutions for our customers.”