| Type | Public key certificates |
|---|---|
| Owner | Symantec |
| Country | United States |
| Markets | World |
| Website | http://www.geotrust.com/ |
GeoTrust is a large digital certificate provider.
GeoTrust was a restarted company in 2001 that acquired the security business of Equifax. The Equifax business was the basis of its fast growth. The founders of the restarted company were CEO Neal Creighton, CTO Chris Bailey and Principal Engineer Kefeng Chen. Having no previous fund raising experience Creighton, Bailey and Chen used an existing (almost bankrupt) company as the vehicle to acquire the business they had started at Equifax. The buyout of the Equifax certificate business was inexpensive given the final exit price in 2006.[1]
VeriSign acquired GeoTrust on 5 September 2006 for $125 million in cash. The main investor was St. Paul Venture Capital/VesBridge.
The pre 2001 GeoTrust was focused on the B to B exchange market which never materialized. GeoTrust became one of the few startup dotcom companies able to restart in a new direction and to achieve a successful outcome. ACG/ Mass High tech named VeriSign's acquisition of GeoTrust as the sell side deal of the year for 2006.[2] With GeoTrust's history, several individuals have had the title of co-founder. There are founders of the old GeoTrust which started in 1999 and had to restart in 2001 and founders of the restarted company in 2001 that sold to VeriSign in 2006 for $125 million. These may be viewed as two distinct companies with the same name in completely different businesses.[3]
The GeoTrust brand is now owned by Symantec as part of its $1.28 billion acquisition of VeriSign's security business in 2010.