Datacard Group announced on December 17, 2013, that it had agreed to acquire Entrust Inc., bringing together Datacard’s secure identification and card-personalization business with Entrust’s digital-identity and information-security business. The announcement projected a December 31 closing, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions; it does not confirm that the transaction closed or establish a completion date. Read the announcement.
What did Datacard Group announce?
The announcement described an agreement to acquire Entrust, not a completed transaction. Datacard characterized itself as a provider of secure identification and card-personalization solutions, while Entrust was described as a provider of digital identity and information security. The companies said the combination was intended to help customers operate in connected environments.
Todd Wilkinson, then Datacard Group president and CEO, called it a “proposed combination” intended to help customers and partners reduce complexity while strengthening trust. Bill Conner, then Entrust president and CEO, said Entrust had sought the right partner to uphold its role in identity-based security. Both statements reflected the companies’ rationale for the agreement, not an independent assessment of its likely results.
What businesses and use cases were meant to come together?
The companies presented the strategic fit as a pairing of physical identity issuance and personalization with digital identity and information security. The announcement described planned investment in personalization, identity, and credentialing, with issuance through centrally managed bureaus, instant issuance, and mobile environments.
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- Payments and identity: workflows involving payment cards, identity documents, certificates, mobile devices, and tokens.
- Authentication and credential management: tools to manage and verify identities and credentials.
- Broader security applications: ecommerce and financial transactions, secure communications, critical infrastructure, access control, and citizen identification and services.
- Deployment options: delivery and management models ranging from on-premise to cloud.
- Customer support: a stated aim to broaden localized support.
These were goals and areas of intended focus in the announcement; it does not demonstrate what the combined business later delivered.
What closing date did the announcement give?
Datacard said it expected the acquisition to close on December 31, 2013, subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions. That date was a forecast in the December 17 announcement, not proof that the deal closed then. The announcement does not establish the final regulatory outcome, consideration paid, or exact completion date.
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What scale did the companies project?
The announcement projected that the combined entity would employ nearly 2,000 professionals, work with hundreds of channel partners, and serve tens of thousands of customers. It also said it would enable issuance of more than 10 million physical identities daily, handle more than 200 billion transactions annually, and manage billions of identities in over 100 countries. These were company-published projections about the anticipated combined entity, not independently verified measurements or current figures.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How does Entrust describe its business today?
Entrust’s current website positions the company around identity-centric security. Its listed areas include identity verification, card and ID issuance, authentication, key and certificate lifecycle management, post-quantum cryptography, hardware security modules, public key infrastructure, certificate management, key and secrets management, and digital-signing infrastructure. The site also offers guided demonstrations of business offerings such as a cryptographic security platform, identity verification, and digital card issuance. This is current company positioning and indicates an enterprise focus; it should not be read as a record of Entrust’s precise 2013 portfolio or as evidence that the acquisition closed. See Entrust’s current site.
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The same homepage publishes claims of “20B+” payment cards issued in the last 50 years, “110M+” workforce and consumer identities protected, and “+50%” of the Global Fortune 100 using its hardware security modules. These are Entrust’s own figures; the page does not provide a publication year, and they are not independent findings.
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