Symantec to acquire VeriSign’s security business

Symantec has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VeriSign’s identity and authentication business, which includes the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, the VeriSign Trust Services and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service.

Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec will purchase the specific assets from VeriSign, including the majority stake in VeriSign Japan, for a purchase price of approximately $1.28 billion in cash. Symantec expects the transaction to be 9 cents dilutive to non-GAAP earnings per share in fiscal year 2011, due to the purchase price accounting write down of deferred revenue, and accretive to non-GAAP earnings per share in the September 2011 quarter.

The agreement is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals, and is expected to close in the September quarter.

VeriSign’s SSL Certificate Services provide users with assurance that the websites they are interacting with are legitimate and secure and that their information will be safe when they share it with that site. The VeriSign check mark signifies the authenticity of the websites that users visit and assures them that any sensitive information they share with that site will be encrypted during online transactions.

With more than one million web servers using VeriSign SSL certificates, and an infrastructure that processes more than two billion certificate checks daily, VeriSign has a large share of the SSL market. The addressable market for the server and user authentication segment is estimated to reach $1.6 billion by 2013.