- Email: [email protected]
L-1 adds 3D face through Bioscrypt purchase
NEWS / COMMENT acquisition
social networking
L-1 adds 3D face through MySpace to consider Bioscrypt purchase additional protection measures ontinuing on its trail of acquisitions,
C
the latest target for L-1 Identity Solutions is Bioscrypt, a provider of enterprise access control solutions based on fingerprint and 3D facial recognition. The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement whereby L-1 will acquire all outstanding Bioscrypt shares in a stock-forstock transaction. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, L-1 will purchase Bioscrypt shares for consideration currently valued at C$0.55 per share, representing a total purchase price of approximately C$44.0 million. The offer price of represents a premium to Bioscrypt shareholders of 53% over the closing price of Bioscrypt on Friday, 4 January 2008. According to Robert M. Douglas, president and CEO of Bioscrypt: “We see this as a ‘hand in glove’ business fit which at the conclusion of this transaction, Bioscrypt’s technology will gain greater visibility and market traction to extend its global leadership in biometric physical and logical access control. In addition, the transaction provides the shareholders of Bioscrypt with the enhanced visibility, investment opportunities, and market trading liquidity in the New York Stock Exchange, as L-1 Identity shareholders.” The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, subject to the satisfaction of a number of customary conditions, including approval by the holders of at least two-thirds of Bioscrypt’s outstanding common shares, options and warrants. “With this acquisition, L-1 strengthens its leadership position in protecting and securing personal identities and assets by extending into access control, a market that is expected to grow substantially,” said Robert V. LaPenta, chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions. “In line with our strategy to acquire the best-in-class solutions, Bioscrypt is a leader in advanced physical and logical biometric access control solutions and brings new and unique technological capabilities to our portfolio of identity management solutions, including three-dimensional facial recognition.” Following the close of the transaction, it is expected that Bioscrypt will continue to operate from its current locations, but will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of L-1 Identity Solutions.
Contact: Doni Fordyce at L-1 Identity Solutions, Tel: +1 203 504 1109, Email: [email protected]
12
Biometric Technology Today
A
n agreement has been struck between social networking site MySpace and more than 45 US states to add protections and look at new technologies including age verification to prevent sexual predators and others from misusing its site. Within the biometric industry Logica believes it has stolen a march on its competitors by offering a biometric technology enrollment and validation system for underage users of social networking sites. Logica’s technology incorporating biometric technology in the form of a fingerprint reader, developed along with its partners Novell, Fujitsu and 123ID, is currently being employed in Logica’s new web site Annesdiary.com, the world’s first secure social networking site for girls ages 6-14. The site, which was launched in November, is based
on the novel Anne of Green Gables and is seeing increasing enrollment as girls and parents around the world are seeking a safe website for establishing friendships within a secure online community. “We are very eager to discuss with MySpace on how we might work together to insure that young people who visit these sites do so in a safe and secure environment,’’ said Pino Baldassarre, CEO of Logica Holdings. “As our technology is proven effective, we stand ready to help MySpace and other social networking sites verify the authenticity of its users as we help make the world safer from Internet predators, which is a very real and dangerous threat.’’ Logica’s system uses Fujitsu’s fingerprint sensors coupled with 123ID’s Universal Matching System (UMS) engine. However, the utilization of 123ID’s UMS engine has allowed the ubiquity of using any reader to authenticate and enroll with any biometric reader available, either standalone or integrated, such as a built-in keyboard reader. All communications between the user and the Annesdiary.com server are done through an SSL tunnel similar to that used in financial transactions. In addition, the site uses an “Extended Verification’’ certificate to further increase security from the current phenomenon of phishing attacks.
COMMENT Politics, politics, politics! This month’s edition is so full of politics that we almost renamed the newsletter Biometric Politics Today (BPT). Of course, it is inevitable that any largescale system goes hand-in-hand with politics, after all such systems are paid for by the taxpayer and, in an ideal world, politicians are there to serve the best interests of citizens. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and while it would be nice to think that politicians have a free range to debate the merits or otherwise of a biometric-based ID card system – and even to change their minds on certain aspects without being pounced upon – it is never going to happen. So, in the case of the UK, we end up with the government taking a position on national ID cards, and almost everyone else opposing them. At this point, any deviation from the original plans is big news, and it is as much as the government can do to try and persuade people they haven’t actually altered their position at all (which might technically be correct, but there certainly seems to have been a change of emphasis and momentum…) Naturally, elections need to be won, and popularity is crucial. Politicians are a fairly
hardy bunch, but when it becomes clear that a once-popular measure is starting to backfire (not helped by the seemingly endless list of cases of personal data loss), then it is time to call in the spin doctors for a consultation. If we are to believe the yarn, then ePassport delays have everything to do with not being at the bleeding-edge of new technological developments (so why are we rolling out one of the most sophisticated, unparalleled ID card systems in the world, skeptics will ask?) and this in turn will delay the large-scale roll out of ID cards until well after the next general elections. (How convenient skeptics will say.) Meanwhile we are to believe that the withdrawal of two major bidders from the ID card procurement process is due to at least one of those companies not having the right skill set! Surely the real reason is far more to do with the uncertainty surrounding the whole ID card project, skeptics would argue. The sad fact is that a properly thought-out, politics-free, ID card scheme could be a real vote winner, but politics makes it very difficult for the best solution to surface and we end up with every change (as positive as they may be) slowly destroying confidence in the ID card scheme. Mark Lockie
February 2008
social networking
L-1 adds 3D face through MySpace to consider Bioscrypt purchase additional protection measures ontinuing on its trail of acquisitions,
C
the latest target for L-1 Identity Solutions is Bioscrypt, a provider of enterprise access control solutions based on fingerprint and 3D facial recognition. The two companies have entered into a definitive agreement whereby L-1 will acquire all outstanding Bioscrypt shares in a stock-forstock transaction. Under the terms of the definitive agreement, L-1 will purchase Bioscrypt shares for consideration currently valued at C$0.55 per share, representing a total purchase price of approximately C$44.0 million. The offer price of represents a premium to Bioscrypt shareholders of 53% over the closing price of Bioscrypt on Friday, 4 January 2008. According to Robert M. Douglas, president and CEO of Bioscrypt: “We see this as a ‘hand in glove’ business fit which at the conclusion of this transaction, Bioscrypt’s technology will gain greater visibility and market traction to extend its global leadership in biometric physical and logical access control. In addition, the transaction provides the shareholders of Bioscrypt with the enhanced visibility, investment opportunities, and market trading liquidity in the New York Stock Exchange, as L-1 Identity shareholders.” The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008, subject to the satisfaction of a number of customary conditions, including approval by the holders of at least two-thirds of Bioscrypt’s outstanding common shares, options and warrants. “With this acquisition, L-1 strengthens its leadership position in protecting and securing personal identities and assets by extending into access control, a market that is expected to grow substantially,” said Robert V. LaPenta, chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions. “In line with our strategy to acquire the best-in-class solutions, Bioscrypt is a leader in advanced physical and logical biometric access control solutions and brings new and unique technological capabilities to our portfolio of identity management solutions, including three-dimensional facial recognition.” Following the close of the transaction, it is expected that Bioscrypt will continue to operate from its current locations, but will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of L-1 Identity Solutions.
Contact: Doni Fordyce at L-1 Identity Solutions, Tel: +1 203 504 1109, Email: [email protected]
12
Biometric Technology Today
A
n agreement has been struck between social networking site MySpace and more than 45 US states to add protections and look at new technologies including age verification to prevent sexual predators and others from misusing its site. Within the biometric industry Logica believes it has stolen a march on its competitors by offering a biometric technology enrollment and validation system for underage users of social networking sites. Logica’s technology incorporating biometric technology in the form of a fingerprint reader, developed along with its partners Novell, Fujitsu and 123ID, is currently being employed in Logica’s new web site Annesdiary.com, the world’s first secure social networking site for girls ages 6-14. The site, which was launched in November, is based
on the novel Anne of Green Gables and is seeing increasing enrollment as girls and parents around the world are seeking a safe website for establishing friendships within a secure online community. “We are very eager to discuss with MySpace on how we might work together to insure that young people who visit these sites do so in a safe and secure environment,’’ said Pino Baldassarre, CEO of Logica Holdings. “As our technology is proven effective, we stand ready to help MySpace and other social networking sites verify the authenticity of its users as we help make the world safer from Internet predators, which is a very real and dangerous threat.’’ Logica’s system uses Fujitsu’s fingerprint sensors coupled with 123ID’s Universal Matching System (UMS) engine. However, the utilization of 123ID’s UMS engine has allowed the ubiquity of using any reader to authenticate and enroll with any biometric reader available, either standalone or integrated, such as a built-in keyboard reader. All communications between the user and the Annesdiary.com server are done through an SSL tunnel similar to that used in financial transactions. In addition, the site uses an “Extended Verification’’ certificate to further increase security from the current phenomenon of phishing attacks.
COMMENT Politics, politics, politics! This month’s edition is so full of politics that we almost renamed the newsletter Biometric Politics Today (BPT). Of course, it is inevitable that any largescale system goes hand-in-hand with politics, after all such systems are paid for by the taxpayer and, in an ideal world, politicians are there to serve the best interests of citizens. However, we do not live in an ideal world, and while it would be nice to think that politicians have a free range to debate the merits or otherwise of a biometric-based ID card system – and even to change their minds on certain aspects without being pounced upon – it is never going to happen. So, in the case of the UK, we end up with the government taking a position on national ID cards, and almost everyone else opposing them. At this point, any deviation from the original plans is big news, and it is as much as the government can do to try and persuade people they haven’t actually altered their position at all (which might technically be correct, but there certainly seems to have been a change of emphasis and momentum…) Naturally, elections need to be won, and popularity is crucial. Politicians are a fairly
hardy bunch, but when it becomes clear that a once-popular measure is starting to backfire (not helped by the seemingly endless list of cases of personal data loss), then it is time to call in the spin doctors for a consultation. If we are to believe the yarn, then ePassport delays have everything to do with not being at the bleeding-edge of new technological developments (so why are we rolling out one of the most sophisticated, unparalleled ID card systems in the world, skeptics will ask?) and this in turn will delay the large-scale roll out of ID cards until well after the next general elections. (How convenient skeptics will say.) Meanwhile we are to believe that the withdrawal of two major bidders from the ID card procurement process is due to at least one of those companies not having the right skill set! Surely the real reason is far more to do with the uncertainty surrounding the whole ID card project, skeptics would argue. The sad fact is that a properly thought-out, politics-free, ID card scheme could be a real vote winner, but politics makes it very difficult for the best solution to surface and we end up with every change (as positive as they may be) slowly destroying confidence in the ID card scheme. Mark Lockie
February 2008