ASSA ABLOY has agreed to divest HID’s PKI business unit to Vista Equity Partners, with the deal expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.
The PKI business unit provides digital trust, identity, authentication, encryption, and certificate management solutions to government and enterprise customers worldwide.
The unit encompasses PKI SaaS platforms including IdenTrust and HydrantID, as well as credential management tools and ZeroSSL.
The divested business recorded sales of MUSD 58, approximately MSEK 570, in 2025, and carried a strong operating margin throughout the year.
Vista’s Foundation Fund is executing the carve-out, and the business will operate as a standalone company once the transaction closes.
ASSA ABLOY President and CEO Nico Delvaux expressed confidence in the outcome, saying: “I find it very satisfying that with Vista, the PKI business unit and its employees and customers gain a committed long-term investor, creating new opportunities for the future and I wish them every success.”
Björn Lidefelt, EVP and Head of HID, added: “Our PKI team has built a strong business with a strong customer base, and Vista has the expertise to take it forward as the market evolves. We are pleased with this outcome for our customers, our employees, and for HID.”
Stephen Foster, a managing director in Vista’s Foundation strategy, highlighted the strategic importance of the assets being acquired in the context of AI adoption and identity security demands.
Foster said: “The assets we are acquiring comprise technologies that are critical for identity security and span humans, machines and AI agents.”
He described the unit as comprising four products that “collectively issue and automate the management of these certificates at scale for government and enterprise customers.”
Foster also tied the acquisition to the growing deployment of AI agents, noting: “As organizations put AI agents to work, each agent needs an identity that can be verified before it is trusted with sensitive systems and data.”
The business unit is also active in quantum-resilient cryptography, a field focused on protecting systems against attacks from future quantum computers.
This transaction is not the first recent divestiture from HID, as the company also agreed to transfer its Workforce Business Unit to SwiftConnect in exchange for additional equity in that company.
The Workforce Business Unit transfer included the HID SAFE physical identity and access management platform and its visitor management products.
Financial terms of the Vista deal were not disclosed, and closing remains subject to customary regulatory and transactional conditions.
