Gemalto has completed its acquisition of 3M’s identity management business, which includes 3M Cogent—a fully owned subsidiary specializing in biometrics for law enforcement, border control, and civil ID.
The deal was first announced toward the end of last year. At the time of the initial announcement in December 2016, the acquisition was valued around $850 million.
In a statement announcing the deal’s finalization, 3M declined to detail the exact price at its closing, but noted that annual sales of the division amount to about $205 million. The company also indicated that about 450 3M employees will migrate to Gemalto’s workforce.
“With the acquisition of 3M’s Identity Management Business, Gemalto makes a strategic move by in-sourcing biometric technology,” said Gemalto CEO Philippe Vallée. “Combining our market access, technologies and expertise will enable Gemalto to further accelerate the deployment of trusted national identities and to offer strong end-to-end biometric authentication solutions throughout the digital economy. I warmly welcome the new teams joining Gemalto and we look forward to working closely together towards success.”
It’s one of multiple major acquisitions in the identity security industry, with Oberthur Technologies in negotiations to acquire Safran Identity & Security, and Precise Biometrics having recently finalized its acquisition of NexID.
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May 2, 2017 – by Alex Perala
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