Symantec Corporation generally is known as Symantec is a Cyber Security company headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States. The company is involved in the production of web security. Recently, the new owner is all set to take the Symantec in the third quarter of 2018 as Symantec and DigiCert have announced an agreement which states that DigiCert is going to acquire Website security of Symantec and the PKI solutions that are related to it. The meaning of public key infrastructure (PKI) is a mixture of procedures, roles and policies that are required to create, distribute, manage, store, use and withdraw digital certificates plus also administer public-key encryption.
The terms of the agreement state that Symantec will approximately receive $950 million in cash proceeds, which are upfront and a 30% stake approximately in the business of Digicert’s common stock equity when the transaction closes.
The deal was unanimously approved and accepted by the Board of Directors of the Symantec Company. Once the customary closing conditions are satisfied, the deal will be completed and it is expected that it will take place in the third quarter of the year 2018. The transaction was financed by Credit Suisse, UBS Investment Bank, Goldman Sachs Bank USA and Jefferies Finance LLC.
With the addition of website security solutions of Symantec to the offerings of DigiCert, the top talent of the industry would come together and the customers would be provided with a technology platform that would be enhanced, customer support unparalleled in nature and innovations that would be market-leading. DigiCert will become capable enough to bring novel approaches to the market of SSL and would also be able to take the advantage of opportunities for growth in IoT. DigiCert will still perform all its operations from its headquarters in Lehi, Utah and over 1,000 professionals would be employed.
Symantec CEO Greg Clark gave a statement and told the benefits of this acquisition. He told that this transition of Website Security and related PKI solutions of Symantec to DigiCert would permit Symantec to sharpen their focus of enterprise on delivering protection that would be unparalleled for the cloud generation with the help of the Integrated Cyber Defense Platform of Symantec. Symantec has also recently announced deals with Skycure and Fireglass. The deals demonstrate that Symantec is trying to accelerate their innovation’s pace that they generally bring to the market with the aid of an amalgamation of acquisitions and development from the ground up. Clark also added that they meticulously examined all their options in order to make sure that all their customers would have an experience that would be world-class in nature with an amazing company that offers an up to date website PKI platform and is focused so that it could lead the future generation of website security innovation. Clark was thrilled that Symantec’s customers would be getting benefit from a flawless transition to DigiCert, a company that is entirely focused to deliver leading identity and encryption solutions. There is an intense commitment on the part of Symantec to this successful transition for its customers.
DigiCert CEO John Merrill was also found talking and he said that DigiCert was looking forward to building a great security company and to support all the customers of Symantec and DigiCert in the future. According to John Merrill, the best team in this industry has been assembled in Digicert to aid them in delivering better solutions related to security and the best service to their customers. DigiCert has always been providing innovative products to the market along with the trust of the highest level and skilled leadership in the community of PKI and SSL. After the agreement, DigiCert is quite excited about the awaiting opportunities and it is going to work towards a transition which would be smooth both for the employees and the customers of Symantec’s Website Security business.
Thoma Bravo is a firm of private equity that has been backing DigiCert since 2015. Robert Sayle, who is a partner at Thoma Bravo said that the firm has always been dealing with the market of cybersecurity and has also worked with DigiCert closely in order to attain the growth to the fullest and to create solutions that would be customer-friendly. Robert Sayle was in favor of this agreement and he further said that with the help of this transaction, DigiCert would be expanding its unbelievable talent and the immense experience that it has so that it can lead the future generations of website security at a global level. Thoma Bravo is also eager to support DigiCert as this company knows how to serve its customers perfectly and also tries to find out more and more opportunities that lead to growth and innovation.
Working of DigiCert and Symantec Together
John Merrill, CEO of Digicert would still be the head of the company and the company would be having an executive team wherein people who have industry experience would be involved. Furthermore, Symantec Website Security will remain focused on its customer where a new platform would be provided to the users which will aid them in meeting all the requirements of a browser as well as industry standards. Moreover, the platform provided to them would also be offering the basis for innovation in the future in the Certificate Authority space, which is going to be beneficial for the users.
This agreement is definitely going to satisfy the needs which the browser community has. DigiCert, with this announcement, is communicating its intentions to work for the browser community.
