| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Security |
| Founded | 1991 |
| Headquarters | Irvine, California |
| Key people | Denis Hébert (President & CEO) Dr. Selva Selvaratnam (CTO) Anthony Ball (Senior VP, Identity and Access Management) Jason Bohrer (Senior VP, HID Global Managed Services) Michele DeWitt (VP,Human Resources) Marc Bielmann (VP and Managing Director, Identification Technologies) Tam Hulusi (Senior VP, Strategic Innovation and Intellectual Property) Rodney Glass (Senior VP, Global Quality and Operations) |
| Products | Photo ID badges Contactless/contact smart cards Readers Card printers Inlays RFID tags Fobs Embedded products |
| Revenue | US$ 5.7 Billion 2010 [1] (ASSA ABLOY) |
| Net income | US$ 1.0 Billion 2010 [1] (ASSA ABLOY) |
| Total equity | US$ 3.32 Billion 2010 [1] (ASSA ABLOY) |
| Employees | >2,100 Q2 2011 |
| Parent | ASSA ABLOY |
| Website | http://www.hidglobal.com |
HID Global is a manufacturer of secure identity solutions. The company is owned by ASSA ABLOY, a Swedish supplier and manufacturer of locks and door opening solutions.[2]
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HID Global sells physical access control products, logical access control solutions, and secure issuance solutions that comprise cards, readers, networked access solutions, card printer/encoders and software. Its other business segment includes virtualization technology, cashless payment, government ID, RFID for industry and logistics and Animal ID solutions and professional services.[3]
HID manufactures and licenses several types of technologies, from Wiegand products to 13.56 MHz iCLASS,[4][5] MIFARE, and DESFire, as well as the 125 kHz Indala and Prox cards. Like all 125 kHz Prox cards, the HID Prox cards have no cryptography and the signal can be re-created by a $20 device at a distance of 20 cm.[6] Migration readers from various 125 kHz Prox technologies to 13.56 MHz iCLASS were introduced in 2007.[7]
HID Global has garnered wins with a number of customers:
• HID Global supplies its readers and credentials for access control to Banco do Nordeste of Brasil,[8] Employers Mutual Casualty Company [9] and Albert Einstein.[10]
• HID Global provides network access control to the China Pacific Insurance Co.[11] and Jinwan District People’s Procuratorate[12] located in Sihucheng District, Zhuhai city.
• HID Global supplied card customization products and services to Amway India[13] and Action Ambulance Service.
HID Global serves a variety of partner such as OEMs, system integrators, application developers and channel partners in domestic and international markets.[3] Some OEM partners include Siemens, Honeywell, Lenel (UTC Fire & Security), and Tyco. The company also partners with computer manufacturers to create new products. HID worked with Dell to develop HID on the Desktop, a three-component PC logon solution that won the 2009 Smart Card Alliance Award for Outstanding Technology.[14][15] HID later partnered with Panasonic to integrate an HID Global RFID module into Panasonic's Personal Identification Mini Dock to support reading biometric passports.[16]
HID Global also worked with Inside Secure (formally known as Inside Contactless) and US Bank to supply HID iCLASS contactless smart card technology in the US Bank PayID card program that was the 2010 Paybefore Award Winner for Best Innovative Program.[17] The PayID card program uses an all-purpose card to provide contactless physical access to U.S. Bank facilities, along with contactless payment and traditional magnetic stripe cards for purchases made by U.S. Bank employees.[18]
The company is based in Irvine, California with its corporate offices in the Lakeview Business center and its production facility in the Discovery Irvine Center. The company moved in 2008 from a single location in Lake Forest. The company has many other production facilities in Asia and Europe. Some of these facilities are located in Hong Kong, China and Galway, Ireland. It also has research and development centers in Denver, Colorado as well as Fremont and Mountain View in Northern California.
End-users of HID products primarily include government, financial, corporate, education and healthcare markets.
Originally formed to develop radio frequency identification technologies, HID Global was formed in 1991 as Hughes Identification Devices, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft. The original 125-kilohertz proximity technology had been used in aircraft to track parts, and the company’s founders thought there would be markets interested in using this technology for other purposes.[19]
In October 1995, Hughes management, with help from Citibank Venture Capital, combined its military communications and display products groups with its AML Wireless Systems organization and Hughes Identification Devices (HID) to form Palomar Technologies Corporation.[20] It was at that point that the decision was made to focus efforts on RFID for physical access control, and five years later, the company was acquired by the world's largest lock-maker, Swedish conglomerate ASSA ABLOY AB.[19]
Hughes Identification Devices, Division of Hughes Aircraft
Hughes Identification, which began as a division of Hughes Electronics Corp., made the cards and card readers many businesses and government agencies use to limit access to their offices. Its clients included Motorola, International Business Machines Corp. and numerous colleges. As part of Palomar Technologies, Hughes Identification enjoyed swift growth as the private sector became increasingly concerned about security. It was acquired by ASSA ABLOY in January 2001 for about $250 million in cash, adding the Irvine company's electronic systems to its more old-fashioned product line.
ASSA ABLOY
ASSA ABLOY is a supplier of door-opening solutions. Since its founding in 1994, ASSA ABLOY has an international group with over 29,000 employees and sales of around SEK 35 billion.[21]
ASSA ABLOY was formed from the merger of Swedish Securitas and Finnish Wärtsilä, with 4,700 employees and sales of SEK 3 billion and a listing on the Stockholm Stock Exchange. The company acquired ESSEX in 1996 to establish a strong position in the U.S. commercial security market. ASSA ABLOY made a number of other acquisitions through the late 1970s, and in 2000 made its largest acquisition with the purchase of Yale Intruder Security, making it the world’s leading lock company.[22] By 2001, ASSA ABLOY comprised more than 100 companies worldwide. The company continued to acquire more than four dozen companies through 2010.
| Year | History |
|---|---|
| 1991 | Formed as Hughes Identification Devices, a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft |
| 1995 | Became a subsidiary of Palomar Technological Companies, changed name to HID Corporation |
| 1996 | Acquired Sensor Engineering, adding Wiegand products |
| 2000 | Acquired by ASSA ABLOY AB |
| 2001 | HID acquired Motorola's Indala[23] RFID access control business |
| 2003 | Acquired the card and reader business of Dorado Products, Inc.[24] |
| 2006 | Acquired Fargo Electronics, adding card issuance technology |
| 2006 | Merged with ASSA ABLOY sister company Indala |
| 2006 | Formed HID Global |
| 2007 | Acquired Integrated Engineering, adding flexible MIFARE-based reader technology |
| 2008 | Merger of HID Global and ASSA ABLOY Identification Technologies Group |
| 2010 | Acquired ActivIdentity[25]for $162 M USD- is a worldwide leader in intelligent identity |
| 2011 | Acquired LaserCard[26]for $80 M USD- a leading provider of secure ID solutions |