Apple has bought AuthenTec for $356 million
Apple had recently announced that it has bought AuthenTec, the maker of a wide variety of security solutions, including fingerprint sensor security for $356 million.
AuthenTec offers a wide range of security themed products including security toolkits to smart sensors for PCs, networking solutions and integrated security chips for smartphones, which can encrypt data, making mobile devices more enterprise-ready. The company has shipped over 100 million fingerprint sensors, with more 15 million phones including the sensors.
Apple had paid $8 a share for AuthenTec, which is a 58 percent premium over the company’s $5.07 stock price.
Principle analyst and founder of J. Gold Associates, Jack Gold says,
“AuthenTec’s major business is fingerprint sensors. Most all the notebook vendors use their chip for log in/authentication. It looks like Apple wants to sew up that market. I see this less as a phone play, as there is virtually no fingerprint sign in on phones (it was tried in the past by HP and BB, but the users didn’t like it). While AuthenTec does make other chips (like NFC) I see this as a less of an issue for device manufacturers, as there is ample supply from other vendors on this.”
Apple will most likely make use of AuthenTec’s technology so expect integrated security in future iOS devices including iPhones, iPads, Mac computers and networking hardware.
