Thales to sell its GP HSM business to Entrust Datacard

The GP HSM business, has been operating as a separate stand-alone business within Thales since January 2019 under the brand “nCipher Security”, and has now found a new owner. The transaction is expected to close during the second quarter of 2019. It addresses commitments made by Thales to several competition authorities to divest this business to a suitable purchaser in order to ensure a strongly competitive market for GP HSM solutions and to finalise its acquisition of Gemalto, a press release reads. The transaction is however subject to the successful completion of the acquisition of Gemalto by Thales, the approval of Entrust as a suitable purchaser by the European Commission, US Department of Justice, Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, and New Zealand Commerce Commission, and the satisfaction of customary closing conditions. This transaction will enable nCipher Security — with more than EUR 100m in revenues in 2018 and over 300 employees — to continue to deliver its solutions and services. “This announcement marks a key step in the ongoing process regarding the acquisition of Gemalto which we expect to close by end March 2019. We are convinced that nCipher Security will strongly leverage the expertise of Entrust Datacard, an organization focused on their competencies in the development of safe and secure access to information, applications and networks as well as its global presence specifically in Europe and in North America,” says Philippe Keryer, Executive Vice-President, Strategy, Research and Technology at Thales, in the release.