InformationWeek

Entrust hopes to combine its offerings with enCommerce's technology to become a leading provider of end-to-end infrastructures for conducting secure transactions across business portals and marketplaces. EnCommerce provides users with secure, personalized access to Web applications and services via getAccess, its flagship portal infrastructure product for managing E-business relationships. The combined companies will have a base of 1,500 customers globally.

"This is a good acquisition," says Aberdeen Group analyst Jim Hurley. "What they can offer is the ability to purchase, from one supplier, both the authentication and authorization solutions for Web applications."

To provide one-stop shopping for security, authorization, authentication, and other value-added services, a number of security vendors have made similar acquisitions. Earlier this year, Baltimore Technologies plc acquired GTE CyberTrust Solutions Inc., the public key infrastructure and digital-certificate security subsidiary of GTE, for $150 million in stock. Last month, VeriSign Inc. bought Internet registrar Network Solutions Inc. for $21 billion in stock. VeriSign reported last week a loss of $26.2 million for its first quarter, ended March 31, on revenue of $34.1 million.