Polaris Software acquires US firm for $20 mn

CHENNAI, INDIA: City-based banking, financial services and insurance software developer Polaris Software Lab Ltd. Wednesday announced the acquisition of an 85.3 percent stake in the US-based IdenTrust Inc for $20 million to enter the cloud computing space in a major way.

"With increasing dependency on the internet, security solutions that incorporate identity management are a key element in any cloud (computing) offering. We believe that IdenTrust, being a proven provider of bank-grade identity authentication in 175 countries, will bring in the required expertise in this area allowing us to create more value for our clients by providing the most secure Financial Infrastructure solutions,"

Arun Jain, founder, chairman & CEO, Polaris Software said.

The $9-million revenue IdenTrust was founded in 1999 by a group of financial institutions that included Citigroup, Bank of America, Chase, Barclays, HSBC and Deutsche.

"The balance 14.7 percent stake is being held by the existing shareholders. The company has less than 100 employees," Jain told IANS.

As the only bank-developed identity authentication system, IdenTrust provides applications that use electronic identities that establish contracts, grant authority, support secure encrypted data and information storage and secure online transactions.

According to Jain, the shareholders of IdenTrust include 20 banks, and the company brings with it an existing customer base of 10 of the world's largest banks; a portfolio of patents, and the associated intellectual property and expertise around identity, authentication, encryption, and electronic signatures on a global basis; and strong operational and hosting capabilities, led by a solid management team.

When cited the investments made by Polaris Software in redesigning the Orbitech suite of banking software products which were acquired from Orbitech Solutions in early 2002, Jain said: "Intellectual property rights (IPR) have two parts - product and the technology. What we did with Orbitech products was upgrading the products to offer them on service oriented architecture (SOA)."

Jain said IdenTrust will close this year with a revenue of $11 million and make profit.

"The potential is large in the cloud computing space," Jain added.

IdenTrust is the fourth acquisition for Polaris Software in three years.

In 2008, it had acquired US-based insurance product and component services player SEEC Inc for Rs.37 crore and in 2010 Laser Soft for Rs.52 crore.

Jain said the integration of the acquired companies have been completed