SAN FRANCISCO, May 19 (Reuters) - Symantec Corp agreed to buy VeriSign Inc's widely used technology for securing payments over the Internet as part of a deal worth $1.28 billion, the companies said on Wednesday.
The deal would give Symantec, the world's biggest maker of security software, VeriSign's Internet security business including its crown jewel -- the SSL technology for electronic payments and other Internet transactions.
Sale of the unit leaves VeriSign in one main business -- managing more than 100 million Internet domain names, including those ending in .com and .net. Over the past three years, it has sold off or shut down nearly 20 business units to focus on its high-margin Internet domain business.
VeriSign's security businesses accounted for about $410 million of its $1 billion in sales last year.
Symantec expects the deal to lower its non-GAAP earnings per share by 9 cents in fiscal year 2011, but to start adding to profit in the quarter that ends in September 2010.
VeriSign shares were little changed in extended trade on Wednesday, when they fell 0.85 percent in Nasdaq trade. They had climbed 5 percent on Tuesday following media reports that VeriSign was poised to announce the deal.
VeriSign is well known for its secure socket layer, or SSL, technology that encrypts financial transactions over the Internet. A certificate on a website's server authenticates the identity of that site to the user, then sets up a scrambled connection to prevent outsiders from stealing sensitive data.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle. Editing by Robert MacMillan) Keywords: VERISIGN SYMANTEC/ (jim.finkle@thomsonreuters.com +1 617 856 4344; Reuters Messaging: jim.finkle.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.
The deal would give Symantec, the world's biggest maker of security software, VeriSign's Internet security business including its crown jewel -- the SSL technology for electronic payments and other Internet transactions.
Sale of the unit leaves VeriSign in one main business -- managing more than 100 million Internet domain names, including those ending in .com and .net. Over the past three years, it has sold off or shut down nearly 20 business units to focus on its high-margin Internet domain business.
VeriSign's security businesses accounted for about $410 million of its $1 billion in sales last year.
Symantec expects the deal to lower its non-GAAP earnings per share by 9 cents in fiscal year 2011, but to start adding to profit in the quarter that ends in September 2010.
VeriSign shares were little changed in extended trade on Wednesday, when they fell 0.85 percent in Nasdaq trade. They had climbed 5 percent on Tuesday following media reports that VeriSign was poised to announce the deal.
VeriSign is well known for its secure socket layer, or SSL, technology that encrypts financial transactions over the Internet. A certificate on a website's server authenticates the identity of that site to the user, then sets up a scrambled connection to prevent outsiders from stealing sensitive data.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle. Editing by Robert MacMillan) Keywords: VERISIGN SYMANTEC/ (jim.finkle@thomsonreuters.com +1 617 856 4344; Reuters Messaging: jim.finkle.reuters.com@reuters.net) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.