Security vendor RSA Security Inc. (stock: RSAS) says it will pay $135.6 million, in an all-cash deal, to acquire privately held access-management vendor Securant Technologies Inc. Pending regulatory approval, the deal is expected to close by the end of August.

Securant's product, ClearTrust, is used by such customers as ABN Amro, Experian, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers, McKesson HBOC, Scientific-Atlanta, and Thomson Financial.

With this acquisition, RSA would be competing in a crowded field of access-management vendors, including Netegrity, Baltimore Technologies, Tivoli, Oblix, and Entrust Technologies. Still, "RSA is moving upstream with this acquisition," Forrester Research analyst Frank Prince says. "This purchase makes some sense, considering RSA's current authentication solutions."

RSA sells its RSA SecurID authentication technology, RSA BSafe encryption software, and RSA Keon public key infrastructure technology. RSA execs say Securant's ClearTrust authorization software will help it move into the highly competitive yet rapidly growing identity-management market.

But RSA is facing hurdles, Prince warns. "RSA is a security-products company, and they tend to sell on the basis of the strength and benefits of security," he says. "Companies don't buy identity management for security as the top priority. They buy it for better and less costly management, and improved service. Security is No. 3 on the list."

Gordon Eubanks, president and CEO of Oblix, a Securant competitor, agrees. He says companies that have tried to vertically integrate "always run the risk of winning the argument for themselves that best-of-breed solutions don't matter, but customers say best of breed still matters. Vertical integration is an old strategy, but a difficult one to execute.

"RSA has done a great job of providing the tools that can provide the secure connections and help identify people," Eubanks adds. "It is something every one of us will continue to support."

Eubanks points to last year's $470 million purchase of enCommerce by Entrust Technologies Inc.: "EnCommerce had some momentum, then Entrust bought them and they completely disappeared. We hardly ever run into them in competitive situations anymore."