Symantec acquiring PasswordBank for single sign-on services

The day of tech startup acquisitions around the world continues on the security front this afternoon.

Symantec is reportedly acquiring Spanish startup PasswordBank to add more authentication services, according to The Next Web.

Targeted toward enterprise customers, PasswordBank develops an Identity-as-a-Service platform that includes single sign-on (SSO) services, delivered both via the cloud and on-premise.

The platform is designed to support Mac OS X, Linux and Windows desktops and servers. PasswordBank also has a deal with Oracle as the designated partner for delivering secure access to applications in heterogeneous environments by extending SSO to non-Windows desktops.

Based in Barcelona, PasswordBank has offices in Singapore and Sunnyvale, California.

The Symantec news follows earlier reports about Facebook's purchase of UK-based software startup Monoidics and Yahoo's latest acquisition du jour, social data business Ztelic in China.

However, it also closely follows a number of job cuts looming around the security giant as Symantec has been in the process of reorganization with hundreds of potential layoffs this year.

We pinged Symantec PR to confirm, and we'll update this post when we hear back.

UPDATE: Symantec spokesperson Ellen Hayes confirmed the deal and provided the following statement. However, financial details of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

Symantec has acquired PasswordBank, a company with less than 20 employees based in Barcelona, Spain. PasswordBank is an independent provider of multifactor authentication, single sign on (SSO) and user management services. Symantec will use PasswordBank’s expertise in single sign on technology to extend Symantec’s functionality in secure sign on for web or cloud applications and further enhance its identity and context aware security, a key strategic initiative. Symantec is not disclosing any other details about this deal at this time.