Software Firm Entegrity Buys Directory Technology Vendor

Entegrity Solutions Corp. said it has strengthened its business-to-business commerce offering by acquiring Chromatix Inc., a supplier of secure directory technology.

Directories, which are repositories of corporate information that must be quickly and securely accessible during the conduct of electronic commerce, have become essential for transaction efficiency and authentication of on-line buyers and sellers, Entegrity said.

"Entegrity's ability to produce rapidly deployed, comprehensive, and interoperable e-commerce solutions based on PKI [public key infrastructure] will be greatly enhanced," the San Jose, Calif., company said in announcing the purchase last week.

Privately held Chromatix, founded in 1988 and based in Columbia, Md., offers the SafePages product line and supports open standards such as X.509 digital signatures and LDAP, or Lightweight Directory Access Protocol. It has partnerships with data security companies such as Verisign Inc., Valicert Inc., and Spyrus, and a client list that includes the National Security Agency, the Department of Defense, Cylink Corp., Equifax Inc., GTE Internetworking, and Chase Manhattan Bank.

"With PKI as the acknowledged standard for securing e-business, directories have become vital strategic tools," said Entegrity chairman, president, and chief executive officer David Martin. He said Entegrity had been searching for a complementary acquisition and found that Chromatix's products, services, experience, and client base "provided a perfect match."

"Together, our secured app-lication and directory products, along with offerings from our certification authority partners - IBM, GTE Cybertrust, and Verisign - match the needs of today's enterprises and application service providers," Mr. Martin said.

Thomas Llanso, president and CEO of Chromatix, said SafePages forms building blocks for B-to-B commerce with Entegrity's AssureMail and AssureWeb products, adding up to "a compelling enterprise solution at the application level."

The companies said they expect to announce pricing, packaging, and availability of new products that reflect the new ownership status during the first quarter.

- Jeffrey Kutler

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