Datacard to buy Dallas personal ID security firm

Credit and ID card maker Datacard Group of Minnetonka is buying personal identity security software firm Entrust for a reported $500 million.

Datacard, owned by the Quandt family of Germany, did not disclose the terms of the transaction, but Bloomberg News reported that Datacard was paying $500 million in cash.

Datacard, a formerly public company that was acquired by the Quandt family in 1987, sells machines that print credit, passport and driver's license cards for banks and governments. Datacard has about $500 million in annual sales, Bloomberg reported.

Entrust, a private company purchased from private equity firm Thoma Bravo, is based in Dallas and makes identity management and authentication software designed to thwart ID theft. Thoma Bravo acquired Entrust in 2009 for $124 million, Bloomberg reported.

"Our business model has for decades been about enabling secure transactions, starting from the physical ID and moving to the digital ID," Datacard CEO Todd Wilkinson told Bloomberg News. "Entrust comes at it from the other side. Together, we can cover a wider swath of the ecosystem."

Datacard said the combined companies will have nearly 2,000 employees.

Steve Alexander • 612-673-4553