Saflink and IdentiPHI announced on Tuesday, Sept. 4, 2007, that the two companies have signed an agreement to merge.
As part of the planned merger, Saflink, which provides biometric identity and access control, would join its operations with IdentiPHI, which offers enterprise security/authentication solutions in the forum of smart card usage and biometric readers. Both companies have aspired to the emerging "single sign-on" market.
According to the merge plan, Saflink will exchange IdentiPHI stock for its own stock. That exchange is expected to leave IdentiPHI stakeholders with approximately 75 percent of the merged company. As part of the merger process, Saflink will become known as IdentiPHI, and headquarters operations will be based in Austin, Texas, where IdentiPHI is currently based. Management of the new IdentiPHI is expected to be led by Saflink Interim CEO Steve Oyer, who will serve as the chairman and CEO of the merged firm. IdentiPHI's current CEO Peter Gilbert will assume the role of vice chairman and senior vice president of sales and marketing. IdentiPHI's John Atkinson will be president of the new company, and Mark Norwalk will be chief technology officer (CTO). Saflink's Jeff Dick will be in place as CFO; Brian Wilchusky of Saflink will be vice president of marketing.
The merger began with a product integration, say the two companies. Saflink's biometric middleware products SAFsolution and SAFmodule were adopted by and purchased by IdentiPHI, and then were subsequently integrated into IdentiPHI's authentication/identity/access software. Already, those Saflink technologies had become a part of IdentiPHI's offerings as part of what the company called "an aggressive global sales and marketing campaign."
In a statement announcing the merger, Saflink's CEO Steve Oyer called the merge plans "the culmination" of efforts to create a stable financial existence for the company, and to restructure the business and find a way to profit from the company's core technologies. With the tie-in to IdentiPHI, said Oyer, "I expect the combination with IdentiPHI to provide a unique alchemy of world class sales and distribution infrastructure, state of the art security software expertise and proprietary products and technology that will be a winning combination for the customers, stockholders and employees of both companies."
IdentiPHI's CEO Peter Gilbert said the tie-in with Saflink's technology and the IdentiPHI software suite, the two companies land a competitive advantage.
The combined company will operate as a public company; IdentiPHI is a public company. The merger is expected to close by the end of this year.
More information:
Saflink: www.saflink.com
IdentiPHI: www.identiphi.net
