“On July 27, seemingly out of nowhere, security company AuthenTec announced in a regulatory filing that it had agreed to a $356 million acquisition offer from Apple, making it one of the Apple’s biggest mergers in its 36 year history,” Matt Brian reports for TNW.
“Terms of the deal included provisions for the company’s patents, control of its fingerprint sensors, touchchips and security technologies, but much of the detail was missing from AuthenTec’s document at the time,” Brian reports. “However, with the recent filing of a PREM14A proxy statement with the SEC (a document which notifies shareholders of the deal and how it was finalised, allowing them to vote on whether it should be completed), the security firm has shed more light on why Apple decided to acquire the company.”
Brian reports, “During the talks, Apple’s representatives noted the company’s desire to move quickly with the deal due to its ‘product plans and ongoing engineering efforts.’ …It’s safe to assume the new technology will be fingerprint related, which could play nicely with its new eWallet, which it calls ‘Passbook.’ …AuthenTec announced on May 8, 2012 that it had introduced ‘its first smart sensor specifically tailored for secure NFC mobile commerce.’ The product is a new 192 pixel by 8 pixel fingerprint sensor… a sensor that is 1.3mm in size could even be incorporated into a Home button.”
Tons more in the full article – recommended – here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dan K.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
iOS 6 beta 4 hints at new App Store category for Passbook apps – August 7, 2012
Apple wins NFC-enabled barcode-reading ‘on-the-go shopping list’ patent – August 7, 2012
Apple’s $356 million AuthenTec buy a possible prelude to mobile e-payments – July 27, 2012
Apple patent application details iOS devices that control everything in your home via NFC – July 27, 2012
Apple to buy AuthenTec for $356 million – July 27, 2012
Researcher takes complete control of Android and Nokia phones by merely waving another device near them – July 26, 2012
Mobile e-payments via NFC not ready for prime time until Apple says it is – July 18, 2012
How local businesses and Apple’s Passbook could deliver an unbeatable iWallet – July 13, 2012
The death of cash; paying by iPhone about to become a way of life – July 9, 2012
Don’t overlook Apple’s new Passbook or you might miss the future of payments – June 12, 2012
Apple granted U.S. patent for all-new iWallet credit system architecture – June 5, 2012
Inside Apple’s secret plan to kill the cash register – May 19, 2012
Apple’s iWallet: The one that will rule the world – March 21, 2012
Apple’s new iWallet patent hints at new killer app – March 9, 2012
Apple wins major U.S. ‘iWallet’ patent; the one that may one day ‘rule the world’ – March 6, 2012
Apple invents ingenious security system for the iWallet era – January 9, 2012
Apple patent app describes future iOS devices communicating with parking meters, doors, cash registers and much more – September 22, 2011
Oh no, let’s not go expecting this shit. Assuming it really exists, I say you wouldn’t see anything like that until iPhone 6 or maybe iPad 4 at the earliest.
I think you must mean the “next” new iPhone and the “next” new iPad.
Yes, the nearest iPhone is already iPhone 6 (not iPhone 5), and probably will be called simply “iPhone” (or iPhone 4G/iPhone 6).
Why this obsession with the next iPhone being iP6? Since when did 6 follow 3 and 4 in a conventional numbering system?
Saying the next iPhone WILL be the iPhone 6 doesn’t make it fact, those saying so have no concrete knowledge of what Apple intend, and are just trying to make themselves look clever, possessors of secret knowledge.
I am frequently asked about the iPhone 5. And have been fielding that question for about 16 months. The first 6 months of that, the answer was “I don’t know?”
Then the iphone 4S came out, and since then, I’ve been able tell them “It’s right here. Only they called it the 4S.”
No.
Agree; “quick” in terms of engineering means some time. The new iPhone design was completed early spring already. It takes about half year to shift finalized design into large scale production.
Since this new sensor was only announced in May, it means that it will be in real production months from that time. And huge scale production will be possible even later.
iPad (4) and iPhone (7) from 2013 are more probable variants to include this sensor.
The fingerprint scanner in the home button and the new, to be rumored, retina laser eye scanner that will be integrated into the iChat front camera, it can mean only one thing..,,, yes, a new rumor on a new iPhone model that is larger than the current rumored larger model-The iPhone 5 Get Smart model. Or would that be smaller one?
Only if I can put it in a case shaped like a shoe.
Liie that!
It’s just hype to build up expectations way beyond reality, so that the iPhone5 can disappoint the analysts.
The burning question is will that fingerprint reader be made out of Liquidmetal?
🙁
Motorola Atrix incorporated an Authentec fingerprint scanner some time back. Not the newer version Apple is interested in, but here is a video showing it.
MDN: bogus title. The article is about legal wrangling. There is no hint at which product Apple wants this technology for. Could be MacBooks. There is a guess that it might fit in a home button, but it’s a wild guess.