The Demo Site

Many analysts consider that Symantec acquisition of veriSign’s authentication business would just create a big play for a piece of the market. This acquisition would also seem to be a natural extension of its desktop and server security offerings. The other observers also will be questioning how the best antivirus provider could become the identity broker for the internet.

“Where’s the synergy? Certainly everyone wants to own identity (management), Facebook, Google, PayPal, and they have a much better shot at it because they own more content and more users…Symantec (now) has the technology infrastructure, but it’s not a technology problem, it’s a business problem.” Explained Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner.

While Symantec Chief Executive Enrique Salem said, “I’ve been talking to Mark (McLaughlin, CEO of VeriSign) for the better part of a year and a half” about arranging a deal. But VeriSign’s domain name services business was not fit. Thus, “discussions directly leading to the acquisition of the authentication andidentity unit took place in earnest over the last several months,” he added.

Source: 24worldnews.com