2 min Security

Merger Thales and Gemalto reaches next phase with acquire 86 percent shares

Merger Thales and Gemalto reaches next phase with acquire 86 percent shares

Thales says it has now acquired almost 86 percent of Gemalto’s shares. The bid must be completed on 2 April, according to De Telegraaf. For the other shares, a post-acceptance period of two weeks will be introduced on 1 April.

Thales is the largest defence electronics manufacturer in the European Union. The French government is the largest shareholder in the company. By acquiring Gemalto, Thales hopes to gain a larger share in the growing security services market. This market includes encryption and biometric passports.

In December 2017, Thales reached an agreement to acquire the company for almost 4.8 million euros. Thales wants to combine its digital business with Gemalto, although the company continues to do business under its own brand. If Thales actually owns 95% of the shares, there will probably be a so-called smoke-out procedure. In April, Gemalto is officially included in the books of Thales.

Gemalto is currently listed in Amsterdam and Paris. These stock exchanges will be closed down as soon as possible, although it is not yet known exactly when this will happen.

Before the deal could go ahead, several countries had to give permission for the takeover. In September last year, the two companies had already received permission from the United States, China, Canada, Israel and Turkey. Australia and the European Union followed in December 2018. There are some conditions to that.

Thales has to sell the division that produces the popular nShield securitymodules from the European Union. This would remove some concerns about competition. The nShield technology generates keys and encrypted data and then decodes them again.

The European Commission only gave its approval after an in-depth investigation of the acquisition. The Commission was concerned that the merger would lead to higher prices for various products, and would be detrimental to choice and innovation in this area.

This news article was automatically translated from Dutch to give Techzine.eu a head start. All news articles after September 1, 2019 are written in native English and NOT translated. All our background stories are written in native English as well. For more information read our launch article.