10.31.17
DigiCert Inc., the leading global provider of scalable identity and encryption solutions for the enterprise, and Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ:SYMC), the world’s leading cyber security company, today announced that DigiCert has completed its acquisition of Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI solutions. With the transition of SSL validation, issuance and other processes to DigiCert, Symantec customers have a clear path forward to maintain trust in their SSL certificates.
“Today starts an exciting era for the current customers and partners of both Symantec and DigiCert,” said DigiCert CEO John Merrill. “For Symantec customers, they can feel assured that they will have continuity in their website security, and that we will provide a smooth transition. Our customers and partners will benefit from our accelerated investment in products and solutions for SSL, PKI and IoT. DigiCert will also lead to shape PKI security standards through our participation in industry standards bodies to ensure our customers stay at the forefront of security practices. DigiCert is prepared for this opportunity.”
“The addition of Symantec Web PKI solutions to DigiCert will provide a customer experience that is second to none. We are excited for Symantec customers to benefit from solutions that help advance and strengthen website security,” said Greg Clark, Symantec CEO. “We expect Symantec and DigiCert customers to benefit from focused investment in the next generation of security solutions for our respective customers, and today’s action helps advance this important objective.”
“The completion of this transaction provides DigiCert the opportunity to extend its world-class customer service and industry-leading management tools to a much larger population helping to deliver the best customer experience and enhanced security,” said Robert Sayle, a Partner at Thoma Bravo.
Since announcing the agreement to acquire Symantec Website Security in August of this year, DigiCert has worked to address browser requirements for Symantec-issued certificates. DigiCert plans to replace affected certificates, at no cost and without interruption to ongoing customer business, in order to ensure continued trust. DigiCert will communicate with those impacted and offer the 24/7 availability of its award-winning, global support team to help customers with the process.
DigiCert is well prepared to integrate Symantec’s operations and customers. Over the past several years, DigiCert invested in its infrastructure for scaling to handle major enterprise and IoT certificate deployments for its customers. DigiCert has systems to support billions of certificates and is prepared for the expected growth of its customer base resulting from the acquisition. Customers will notice and appreciate the speed of issuance and quality of support from the start.
“DigiCert is well positioned for this opportunity,” said Jody Cloutier, former senior program manager, Microsoft Cryptographic Ecosystem. “During my time at Microsoft managing the root store program, I always found DigiCert to be committed to advancing online trust. I expect that this acquisition will lead to increasing investments in new platforms and products that will benefit customers.”
“Since the earliest days of Google Certificate Transparency as a concept, DigiCert was a willing partner in helping us test our systems, solve problems, and bring this important technology to fruition,” said Ben Laurie, head of security and transparency, DeepMind. “They were an early implementer and also provided the first independent log that CAs could use to make CT operational. DigiCert has shown a willingness to challenge the status quo to advance CA security and trust.”
“DigiCert stays on the cutting edge of cryptography, security developments, and certificate authority industry standards,” said Philip Chon, security analyst, Verizon Digital Media. “This makes it easy for us to understand and quickly address protocol vulnerabilities and changes in standards to ensure our clients can deliver uninterrupted on-demand video streams to their users.”
As previously announced, DigiCert will continue to be led by CEO John Merrill and an executive team with significant industry experience. DigiCert will continue to operate from its headquarters in Lehi, Utah and will employ over 1,000 professionals with additional office locations in California and internationally. With the addition of Symantec’s Website Security and related PKI solutions, DigiCert will expand its global footprint to provide essential security for customers around the world including Global 2000 enterprise, top retailers, banks, leading technology firms and organizations across a wide spectrum of the economy.
Under the terms of the agreement, Symantec received $950 million in upfront cash proceeds and will retain approximately a 30 percent stake in the common stock equity of DigiCert. Symantec expects to primarily use the transaction proceeds, net of expected taxes and expenses, to repay debt.