EMC’s RSA acquisition

EMC has announced its impending acquisition of RSA Security for approximately $2.1 billion. Under the agreement’s terms, EMC will pay $28 cash per share in exchange for each share of RSA.

RSA is known for its token-based identity and access management tools across the globe. The $2.1 billion merger agreement should put EMC in the forefront especially in domains such as content management (Documentum) and virtualisation (VMware).

This acquisition should help EMC on its way to become a full-fledged IT infrastructure company. EMC has strategically picked up RSA to complement its enterprise security expertise. This will also complement EMC’s storage, virtualisation, content management and business intelligence offerings. RSA is expected to add identity and access management, encryption, and key management software expertise to EMC’s overall IT portfolio solution.

The acquisition is expected to be completed late in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2006 subject to various closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Upon completion of the acquisition, RSA will operate as EMC’s information security division, headquartered in Bedford. Art Coviello, CEO and President, RSA, will take over as the Executive Vice-president of EMC and President of the division.