Press Release

New GlobalSign Launched to World in Wake of Significant Market Changes

New products, new systems, new management team, newly renewed focus

London, UK – July 9, 2007 – GlobalSign Ltd (www.globalsign.co.uk), one of the longest established Certification Authorities (CA) and specialists in SSL security, today announced the company’s worldwide relaunch as a member of the GMO Internet Inc (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 9449) group of companies.  The completely rebranded company is already benefiting from the backing of its new parent company and has begun rolling out new products, solutions and systems and is now set to compete head-on with long-time market leading Certification Authority VeriSign under the new GlobalSign banner.

The launch of the new GlobalSign services and today’s rebranding announcement are a result of recent change within the SSL industry.  Changes that started in September of 2006 when US based GeoTrust Inc was acquired by VeriSign and an opportunity arose for a SSL provider to move into GeoTrust’s market position (as the second largest player) and to become the new alternative offering to the number one player VeriSign.

GMO Internet Inc (GMO) has been deeply involved in the SSL industry for a number of years – with two of its group companies trading as GeoTrust Japan and GeoTrust Europe (incorporating RapidSSL.com) under a historic distribution relationship to represent GeoTrust Inc outside of its US base.  However, these GMO companies were not part of the GeoTrust Inc / VeriSign transaction where, subsequently, their representation of GeoTrust Inc has now been amicably ended.  With the GeoTrust Europe and GeoTrust Japan management teams, (as well as the sales, support and engineering staff) no longer associated with the GeoTrust brand, GMO saw a unique opportunity to realise the team’s vision to take advantage of the newly opened gap in the market, and to move away from the restrictions of its previous distribution models by becoming its own Certification Authority.

In October 2006, the team set about acquiring GlobalSign, a long-time established Certification Authority, its technology, customer base and credible name, and bringing it into the GMO group of companies.  Now, the companies previously trading as GeoTrust Europe and RapidSSL.com have been renamed to GlobalSign Ltd and GeoTrust Japan has been renamed to GlobalSign K.K., and both companies are focused on selling and supporting GlobalSign products.  

The newly rebranded and consolidated organisation has significantly strengthened services under the GlobalSign brand and relaunched around the globe.  GlobalSign now has new offices in the US, UK and Japan as well as the original office in Brussels, Belgium.  Replacement of legacy systems for enterprise solutions and reseller management systems are being rolled out throughout June 2007, along with innovative new SSL and security products.

“When VeriSign acquired Thawte in 2000 it left a huge hole in the market for a new competitor which was subsequently filled by GeoTrust.” commented Ichiro Chujo, Group CEO.  “Now VeriSign has acquired GeoTrust history is repeating itself and once again we’re ready to take that place in the market as the alternative to VeriSign.  This time however we have the advantage of an established team who have already experienced taking GeoTrust to the number one independent SSL brand in many countries around the world.  We’re placing great emphasis on a superb customer experience and have spent the last few months redesigning and rebuilding our enterprise and reseller systems from the bottom up.  Now GlobalSign is in an ideal position to prove there is a credible and cost effective alternative to the VeriSign companies.”

GlobalSign will be relaunching several enterprise and reseller services over the next few weeks.  It will initially be launching its Certificate Center marking a complete overhaul of previous systems and setting a new standard of service for the end-user, reseller or enterprise.  GAS provides the ability for customers to quickly, simply and conveniently purchase any of GlobalSign’s leading SSL Certificates via a centralised web dashboard or through an XML based API.  For further information or to buy products or services, please visit www.globalsign.co.uk.

About GlobalSign
Established in 1996 and as a WebTrust accredited public certificate authority, GlobalSign offers publicly trusted SSL, including SSL Certificates, EV SSL, managed SSL services, S/MIME and Code Signing Certificates for use on all platforms including mobile devices. Its Trusted Root solution uses the widely embedded GlobalSign Root CA certificates to provide immediate PKI trust for Microsoft CA and enterprise CAs, eliminating the costs of using untrusted Root Certificates. Its partnership with Adobe to provide Certified Document Services (CDS) enables secure digitally signed PDF documents, certified transcripts and e-invoices.  These core Digital Certificate solutions allow its thousands of authenticated customers to conduct secure online transactions, data transfer, distribution of tamper-proof code, and protection of online identities for secure email and access control.  The company has a history of innovation within the online security industry and has offices in the US, UK, Belgium, Japan, and China. 

GMO Internet Group
GMO Internet Group, headquartered in Japan, is a leading force in the Internet industry offering one of the most comprehensive ranges of Internet services worldwide. The group holds top domestic market share in domain registration, web hosting, and payment processing and provides a host of other Internet services including global online security services, e-commerce solutions, and Internet advertising to both businesses and individuals. At the centre of the group is GMO Internet, Inc. a company listed on the prestigious first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE: 9449). Please visit www.gmo.jp/en for further details.

For further details please contact: