Companies / JVs / Partnerships

Certicom agrees to takeover by VeriSign
VeriSign’s $92 million bid is 40 percent higher than RIM’s failed hostile offer of $66 million
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Heartland says it has fixed security problem
Heartland Payment Systems, the sixth-largest payment processor in the United States, processes payments for 250,000 companies; thieves install malicious program on company’s computers which captured data as it flowed across the network
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Warwick Warp uses government funds to develop better fingerprint technology
Coventry, U.K.-based company uses research funding from regional authorities to develop software which significantly improves matching accuracy by being able to handle low-quality prints and a variety of spatial distortions
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Utilities plan to stay the course with spending plans for infrastructure
Despite the economic slowdown, utilities around the world plan to press ahead with investments in both their infrastructure and “smart grid” automation program; investments will be in the range of $90-$105 billion
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Security specialist Core Systems sees U.S. prisons as opportunity
Belfast-based Core Systems provides biometric equipment to prisons in the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland; it is now expanding to the United States; with a prison population of 2.2 million; “In the prisons business, the United States is the market leader,” says Patricia O’Hagan, company’s co-owner
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$400 million ballistic missile defense award
The Bush administration awarded Boeing a $400 million contract for Ground-based Midcourse Defense interceptors; it may well be the last large ballistic missile defense contract, as both Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress have shown little interest in the program
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Political squabbles hobble H5N1 research
Indonesia has had the most cases of human H5N1 flu since 2005; it refuses to share the virus samples with Western pharmaceutical companies unless these companies agree to share with Indonesia the profits from the vaccine these companies develop — and also guarantee Indonesia access to a vaccine in case of a pandemic
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Israel-made UAVs gain popularity among world's armies
Israeli-made Heron UAVs will be introduced to the Afghani theater by the Canadian military; Turkey, India, and Georgia have struck deals for various Israeli UAVs; Russia was impressed with the UAV performance (in Georgian hands) during the August 2008 Russia-Georgia war, that the Russian military is buying them
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Radioactive-waste tracking software deployed at U.K. nuclear sites
The radioactive-waste tracking software developed by Tennessee-based AttentionIT will be deployed in decommissioned U.K. nuclear facilities; the waste tracking software provides electronic storage of information related to “cradle to grave” treatment of radioactive and mixed waste
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The continuing development of Fort Detrick offers business opportunities
In some places there is a debate about the balance between the business opportunities and risks that the presence of a BioLab facility offers; in Washington County, Maryland, they concentrate on the business opportunities the sprawling — and growing — Fort Detrick (it covers 1,127 acres and employs more than 8,000 people) offers
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The Blackwater example: Private security booming
The war on terror has been a boon for private security companies; Blackwater is one of the more obvious success stories; the company is expanding its menu of offerings: it is wrapping up work on its own armored vehicle, the Grizzly, as well as its Polar Airship 400, a surveillance blimp
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AS&E in $2.8 million X-ray detection van deal
Massachusetts-based developer of the Z Backscatter detection van reports yet another contract for its “drive-by” inspection system; this contract follows in the wake of several other deals for the company’s solution
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U.K. can lead the world on biometrics
New study argues that the U.K. biometrics industry can lead the world if it were less fragmented and had an independent voice
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Unisys study shows U.S. public trusts biometrics for data protection
Privacy advocates may be worried about the proliferation of biometrics for identification purposes, but a recent Unisys survey shows that Americans are comfortable with the idea of banks and government agencies asking them for biometric data for identity verification
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Economic downturn may force software engineers into crime
Eugene Kaspersky says economic crisis would create a situation in which unemployed software engineers could become the latest threat to corporate IT security
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