Thales Buys Gemalto For $5.6B

Thales and Gemalto announced over the weekend that Gemalto agreed to the 4.8 billion euros ($5.6 billion) deal to sell itself.

In a press release, both parties said they agreed to the all-cash offer for all of Gemalto’s shares for €51 per share cum dividend.

“The acquisition of Gemalto marks a key milestone in the implementation of Thales’s strategy,” said Patrice Caine, Thales chairman and chief executive officer. “Together with Gemalto’s management, we have big ambitions based on a shared vision of the digital transformation of our industries and customers. Our project will be beneficial to innovation and employment, whilst respecting sovereign strategic technologies.” The executive noted that combined, the company is aiming to be a global leader in digital security.

Thales has been focusing on digital technologies for the past three years, pouring more than €1 billion into connectivity, cybersecurity, data analytics and artificial intelligence. The company said that the acquisition and subsequent integration of Gemalto “strongly accelerates” that strategy.

According to Thales, the new business will account for 20 percent of pro forma group revenues, will assume the spot of third-place player globally and will have €3.5bn revenues in the digital security market. The deal will give Thales the ability to offer services to enterprise and government agencies to cover all of their data security issues.

By acquiring Gemalto, Thales also gets a set of technologies that it said can be used in all five of its digital security markets. Thales doesn’t anticipate any reduction in Gemalto’s workforce as a result of the deal.

“I am convinced that the combination with Thales is the best and the most promising option for Gemalto and the most positive outcome for our company, employees, clients, shareholders and other stakeholders,” said Philippe Vallée, Gemalto’s chief executive officer. “We share the same values, and Gemalto will be able to pursue its strategy, accelerate its development and deliver its digital security vision, as part of Thales.”