Californian online security start-up PassMark Security has signed an agreement to acquire substantially all of the assets of Vocent Solutions, a provider of voiceprint authentication technology. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Vocent, which is also based in California, provides packaged products which use biometric voiceprint recognition technology to authenticate remote callers.
PassMark says it will use the Vocent technology to expand its own two-factor authentication platform by including a "voice token" that can be used for high-risk transactions or as an additional verification factor.
Commenting on the acquisition, Jeff Scheel, CEO of Vocent, says: "PassMark made two-factor authentication practical for the online market. Vocent did the same thing for the telephone channel. By integrating our solutions we can now deliver comprehensive multi-channel authentication."
Vocent's development, implementation and support teams have been combined and relocated to PassMark's new facility in Menlo Park, California.
Bill Harris, chairman of PassMark. "The acquisition will provide a true multi-channel authentication platform - securely identifying customers whether they are using the Internet or the phone."
PassMark says products that integrate the technologies of both companies will be available in early 2006.