Aladdin Knowledge Systems
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Security Software & Services |
| Founded | 1985 |
| Founder | Jacob (Yanki) Margalit and Tzvi Popowski |
| Fate | Acquired by SafeNet |
| Headquarters | , USA |
| Products | eToken, eSafe, Hardlock, HASP |
| Revenue |  US$ 105.9 million (2007) |
| $ 13.911 million (2007) | |
| $ 14.888 million (2007) | |
Number of employees | 464[1] |
Aladdin Knowledge Systems (formerly Nasdaq: ALDN and TASE: ALDN) was a company that produced software for digital rights management and Internet security. The company was acquired by Safenet Inc, in 2009. Its corporate headquarters are located in Belcamp, Maryland.
History[edit]
Aladdin Knowledge Systems was founded in 1985 by Jacob (Yanki) Margalit, when he was 23 years old; he was soon joined by his brother Danny Margalit, who took the responsibility for product development at the age of 18, while at the same time completing a Mathematics and Computer Science degree at Tel Aviv University. In its early years the company developed two product lines, an artificial intelligence package (which was dropped early on) and a hardware product to prevent unauthorized software copying, similar to digital rights management (DRM). Margalit raised just $10,000 as an initial capital for the company.[2]
The digital rights management product became a success and by 1993 generated sales of $4,000,000. The same year that company had an initial public offering on NASDAQ raising $7,900,000.[3] In 2004 the company's shares were also listed on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.[4] By 2007 the company's annual revenues reached over $105 million.
In mid-2008, Vector Capital was attempting to purchase Aladdin. Vector initially offered $14.50 per share, but Aladdin's founder Margalit refused the offer arguing that the company was worth more. Aladdin's shareholders agreed on the merger in February 2009 at $11.50 per share, in cash. In March 2009, Vector Capital acquired Aladdin and officially merged it with SafeNet.[5]
Corporate timeline[edit]
- 1985 – Aladdin Knowledge Systems was established
- 1993 – Aladdin held an initial public offering
- 1996 – Aladdin acquired the German company FAST
- 1998 – Aladdin patented USB smart card-based authentication tokens
- 1998_Dec – Aladdin acquired the software protection business of EliaShim
- 1999 – Aladdin acquired the eSafe "content security" business of EliaShim
- 2000 – Aladdin acquired 10% of Comsec
- 2001 – Aladdin acquired the ESD assets of Preview Systems
- 2005 – Aladdin completed second offering – 2,000,000 shares with net proceeds of $39m
- 2009 – Aladdin was acquired by Vector Capital.
- 2010 – Aladdin was merged with Vector Capital's SafeNet.[1]
Products[edit]
DRM[edit]
Aladdin's HASP product line is a DRM suite of protection and licensing software with 40% global market share, used by over 30,000 software publishers. It is used across many platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac).[6]
HASP, which stands for Hardware Against Software Piracy, was the company's first product and evolved into a complete digital rights management suite, that includes a software only option and a back office management application, in recent years also software as a service capability.
Internet security[edit]
In the late 1990s the company started diversifying and began offering Internet security and network security products, offering two product lines:
Digital identity management[edit]
eToken, portable device for two-factor authentication, pasdigital identity management, mainly deployed as a USB token.
Network security[edit]
eSafe a line of integrated network security and content filtering products, protecting networks against cracked and pirated Internet-borne software.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Company Profile for Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd (ALDN), retrieved 2008-10-20
- ^ Shohet, Dan (2008-09-15), "Aladdin's Yanki Margalit: It's not personal", Globes, archived from the original on 2011-07-13, retrieved 2009-11-16
- ^ "Aladdin completes flotation. (Aladdin Knowledge Systems finishes initial public offering on NASDAQ)", Israel Business Today Article Date: October 29, 1993, archived from the original on 2012-11-05
- ^ "Aladdin Knowledge Systems to Dual-List on Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.", PR Newswire, July 22, 2004[dead link]
- ^ Shuster, Shmuel (March 2009), Vector completes Aladdin takeover.
- ^ Miller, Zack (March 12, 2008), "March Stock of the Month: Aladdin Knowledge Systems (ALDN)", Israel Opportunity Investor, archived from the original on January 7, 2009, retrieved November 16, 2009