This time in '99: Security Dynamics eyes smartcard firms

NEWS This is how the original story broke on 8 May, 1999: Secure ecommerce firm, Security Dynamics is preparing to go on a $500m smartcard spending spree. Company president, Art Coviello told Silicon.com: "We've got $500m in cash for acquiring new technologies. I wouldn't look to consolidate in existing areas, but I will move into new markets." He said the company is particularly interested in smartcard applications. "Smartcards are just at the embryonic stage," he explained. "They are useless unless something is put on them." Coviello is looking to buy into four specific areas: technologies for loading applications onto smartcards, password management for online purchasing, biometrics and personalisation. According to Hyperion consultant, Dave Birch, Security Dynamics should consider companies that have the technology to manage multiple applications on a single card. With new Java cards and Windows cards, he said, people are creating interesting applications that have no connection with the manufacturer of the card. Birch outlined the questions that Security Dynamics needs to answer: "If you put your smartcard into your PC to load a new application, how exactly does that work? Where exactly is that application coming from?" He also said European firms would be likely to benefit from the company's shopping spree. "You would expect the target for those acquisitions to be in Europe," he concluded. "There's a lot of competition to broker European smartcard experience into the US."