Point-of-sale data platform expands infrastructure capabilities, customer base in the retail supply chain
Mountain View, CA — November 2, 2005 — VeriSign Inc. announced the acquisition of Retail Solutions Inc. (RSI), a provider of operational point-of-sale (POS) data to the retail industry.
VeriSign said the addition of RSI's customers and core technology to its Intelligent Supply Chain Services platform extends the role VeriSign's infrastructure is playing in the $8 trillion worldwide supply chain. Operational POS data, VeriSign explained, provides detailed information about the volume and value of product sales through retailers and is increasingly being combined with other demand data and new technologies, such as radio frequency identification (RFID).
In conjunction with the acquisition of RSI, VeriSign also announced an agreement with the World Wide Retail Exchange (WWRE) to deliver POS services through WWRE's global platform to enhance store-level visibility to thousands of retailers and suppliers worldwide.
RSI counts more than 130 industry leaders as customers, including Unilever and GlaxoSmithKline. The RSI platform provides its customers with a single point of access to POS data from over 30 retailers. VeriSign said the addition of this capability to its existing Intelligent Supply Chain Services platform increases the scope of services it offers to retail supply chain participants and also enhances the infrastructure it has been developing in the RFID/electronic product code (EPC) and pharmaceutical supply chain markets.
Ann Grackin, CEO of the analyst firm ChainLink Research, stated, VeriSign is increasingly working to leverage its strengths to provide value to customers and partners in the supply chain. With the addition of POS data services, VeriSign has taken a big step forward in this area. Both end users and solutions providers in the retail space can now use the VeriSign platform for streamlined access to information that today must be gathered from many different sources and in many different formats.
RSI has approximately 50 full-time employees and offices in Lincoln, RI. The price of the acquisition was approximately $24 million in cash and it is being accounted for as a purchase transaction.
