Datacard to Purchase Entrust

Card identity and personalization company Datacard has agreed to acquire Entrust, a company that sells digital identity technology.

The deal is expected to close Dec. 31 pending regulatory approval and other closing conditions. Other terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

The acquisition will allow Datacard to broaden the identity technology it offers to payments companies, including security for tasks such as e-commerce, websites, social media, messaging, and access controls.

Together, the two companies will employ 2,000 people and will include tens of thousands of customers, Datacard said in a Dec. 17 press release.  The deal would also provide scale—the combined company would be able to issue more than 10 million identities daily, handle more than 200 billion transactions per year and manage billions of identities, including payment cards in more than 100 countries, the companies say.

Datacard previously invested in DeviceFidelity, which sells instant issuance card technology. Datacard used instant issuance technology as part of flood relief efforts in Canada earlier this year. 

Datacard also plans additional development tied to the pending acquisition, including expanded instant issuance, authentication and credential management that supports a range of form factors such as cards, identity documents and tokens.