Symantec Will Acquire VeriSign's Security Business

Symantec announced last week that the company is acquiring VeriSign’s identity and authentication business, which includes Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Services, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Services, VeriSign Trust Services, and the VeriSign Identity Protection (VIP) Authentication Service. The acquisition is slated for September 2010 and will cost Symantec approximately $1.28 billion.

According to Symantec's press release, this acquisition accompanies a framework of five imperatives that the company is enabling as part of its new vision of computing:

• Identity security: proving that people and sites are who they say they are
• Mobile and other device security: securing mobile and other devices and the information on them
• Information protection: protecting information from loss, attack, theft and misuse and ensuring the ability to recover that information
• Context and relevance: delivering information that is relevant to people in both their personal and professional roles
• Cloud security: ensuring the secure delivery of applications and information from both public and private clouds

Following the acquisition, Symantec will incorporate the iconic VeriSign check mark into a new Symantec logo to convey to users that it is safe to communicate, transact commerce, and exchange information online.