EMC confirms plans to buy RSA In $2.1B deal

Rumours of EMC acquiring RSA it turns out have not been greatly exaggerated. EMC has confirmed plans to acquire RSA Security in a deal worth some US$2.1b.

EMC will pay US$28 a share for US-based RSA, and the companies anticipate the acquisition will close late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approvals and other conditions.

The deal is one of the third largest unions between a storage vendor and a security company over the past year. Symantec completed its merger with Veritas in July, and Network Appliance finalised its acquisition of encryption vendor Decru in August.

While EMC can put a security spin on its storage offerings to justify acquiring RSA's identity management technology, it's unclear how RSA's recent acquisitions of anti-fraud vendor Cyota and authentication vendor PassMark fit into EMC's product strategy, said Dave Gilden, COO of US-based Acuity Solutions.

"I could see EMC taking on RSA as a wholly owned subsidiary, but as an integrated business, the companies are very different," said Gilden.

The typical EMC solution provider is completely different than the typical RSA partner, he added.

However, Joe Tucci, president and CEO of EMC, said plans are to integrate RSA's technology into EMC's product line.

In a statement to the press, he claimed EMC is committed to applying the resources required to continue to expand RSA's leading market share while also tightly integrating their technology with the storage vendor’s products.

Pete Venuta, vice president of sales and marketing at Information Security Technology, a US-based security vendor, is concerned about the implications of RSA being acquired by an organization that isn't traditionally a manufacturer of security technology.

With EMC known as a high-pressure sales organisation, and security traditionally seen as a trust-based industry, it's difficult to see where the synergies would lie between the two vendors, Venuta added.

Greg Hanchin, principal of DirSec, a US-based security integrator, isn't surprised by the acquisition because it reflects the growing synergy between storage and security.

"Over the past year, we're really starting to see how storage data security is important from a compliance standpoint," said Hanchin.

He claims the storage vendor will do well with the RSA acquisition.

Shares of RSA were up US$7.89 at US$27.25 in after hours trading 29 June.