Hamburg, Germany, and Menlo Park, CA / February 2, 2010 – PGP Corporation and TC TrustCenter have signed a binding agreement that establishes the acquisition of TC TrustCenter and its US parent company ChosenSecurity by PGP Corporation. PGP Corporation is a global provider of security software and the market leader in the encryption of e-mail and data. The privately-owned company TC TrustCenter, based in Hamburg, and its parent company ChosenSecurity from Newton (Massachusetts), offers a platform solution for the management of digital certificates to secure encryption, authentication, and network-wide collaboration.
For companies of all sizes, one of the difficult tasks is to manage a large number of different security applications for data protection, to comply with all legal requirements, and to decide again and again which sources are trustworthy. With the acquisition of TC TrustCenter and ChosenSecurity, PGP Corporation is expanding its core competencies in the area of data protection and can now offer digital identity solutions for encryption, authentication, and secure collaboration. PGP Corporation customers can now bridge the gap between third-party security solutions and standards-based and scalable PGP encryption applications.
The TC TrustCenter platform solution allows secure and certified electronic transactions between people, servers, and mobile devices. Applications such as web-based online banking benefit from the secure transactions secured by certificates from TC TrustCenter via SSL connections, which, for example, authenticate mobile applications and implement legally valid digital signatures.
“Certified digital identities are a critical component of data protection applications for securing sensitive data,” said Phillip Dunkelberger, President, and CEO of PGP Corporation. “With this acquisition, we are creating the basis for a security platform that makes the vision of transparent and reliable data protection tangible across the solutions of different providers, across all technologies and all devices.”
Transactions on the Internet are always a matter of trust, “said Jon Oltsik, one of the leading analysts of the Enterprise Strategy Group.” With the acquisition of TC TrustCenter and ChosenSecurity, PGP Corporation has established itself as a provider of globally certified identities – and not just for your own applications, but also for other important applications and transactions. PGP Corporation now has the right technology for secure and trustworthy Internet communication. “
Through the business activities of the last ten years, TC TrustCenter has built a reputation in Europe as a leading provider of solutions for the provision of qualified digital signatures for the financial world, the automotive industry, and service providers. The well-founded practical knowledge of TC TrustCenter in the provision of managed services will usefully complement the expert knowledge of the PGP Corporation in the development of automated and rule-controlled data protection solutions.
“Our PKI solution, designed as a managed service, is the basis for a wide range of different data protection applications,” said Dr. Sabine Kockskämper, Managing Director and co-founder of TC TrustCenter. “We are pleased that we can now join forces with those of PGP Corporation and will work together to create new solutions that combine our managed services with PGP data security solutions in a beneficial way for users.”
“PGP Corporation and TC TrustCenter share their vision of products that offer companies the simplest possible route to maximum security because they are quick to use, flexible to use and require little administration,” said Bob Steinkraus, President, and CEO of ChosenSecurity. “With the acquisition of ChosenSecurity and TC TrustCenter, PGP Corporation has gained a unique Software-as-a-Service offering that best meets customers’ demands for easy-to-use and flexible solutions that can be quickly adapted to the tasks at hand at any time Fulfills.”
ChosenSecurity and TC TrustCenter will continue to maintain, sell, and support their existing products as a division of PGP Corporation. In addition, new products will be developed to integrate the product range of PGP Corporation. PGP Corporation has appointed Rajiv Dholakia to lead this new business unit.
