Aladdin Knowledge Systems (formerly and ) was a company that produced software for

digital rights management Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted work ...

and

Internet security Internet security is a branch of computer security. It encompasses the Internet, browser security, web site security, and network security as it applies to other applications or operating systems as a whole. Its objective is to establish rules ...

. The company was acquired by Safenet Inc, in 2009. Its corporate headquarters are located in Belcamp, MD.

History

Aladdin Knowledge Systems was founded in 1985 by Jacob (Yanki) Margalit, when he was 23 years old; he was soon joined by his brother Dany Margalit, who took the responsibility for product development at the age of 18, while at the same time completing a Mathematics and Computer Science degree at

Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...

. In its early years the company developed two product lines, an

artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is intelligence—perceiving, synthesizing, and inferring information—demonstrated by machines, as opposed to intelligence displayed by animals and humans. Example tasks in which this is done include speech r ...

package (which was dropped early on) and a hardware product to prevent unauthorized software copying, similar to digital rights management. Margalit raised just $10,000 as an initial capital for the company. The

product became a success and by 1993 generated sales of $4,000,000. The same year that company had an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investme ...

NASDAQ The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...

raising $7,900,000. In 2004 the company's shares were also listed on the

Tel Aviv Stock Exchange The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE; ; colloquially known as The Bursa, ) is Israel's only public stock exchange and a public company that has been traded on the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange since August 1, 2019. Legally, the exchange is regulated by ...

. By 2007 the company's annual revenues reached over $105 million. In mid-2008, Vector Capital was attempting to purchase Aladdin. Vector initially offered $14.50 per share, but Aladdin's founder Margalit refused the offer arguing that the company was worth more. Aladdin's shareholders agreed on the merger in February 2009 at $11.50 per share, in cash. In March 2009, Vector Capital acquired Aladdin and officially merged it with SafeNet.

Corporate timeline

* 1985 – Aladdin Knowledge Systems was established * 1993 – Aladdin held an

* 1996 – Aladdin acquired the German company ''FAST'' * 1998 – Aladdin patented USB

smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card (ICC or IC card) is a physical electronic authentication device, used to control access to a resource. It is typically a plastic credit card-sized card with an embedded integrated circuit (IC) c ...

-based

authentication token A security token is a peripheral device used to gain access to an electronically restricted resource. The token is used in addition to or in place of a password. It acts like an electronic key to access something. Examples of security tokens in ...

s * 1998_Dec – Aladdin acquired the software protection business of EliaShim * 1999 – Aladdin acquired the eSafe "content security" business of EliaShim * 2000 – Aladdin acquired 10% of ''Comsec'' * 2001 – Aladdin acquired the ESD assets of ''Preview Systems'' * 2005 – Aladdin completed second offering – 2,000,000 shares with net proceeds of $39m * 2009 – Aladdin was acquired by Vector Capital. * 2010 – Aladdin was merged with Vector Capital's SafeNet.

Products

DRM

Aladdin's HASP product line is a

(DRM) suite of protection and licensing software with 40% global market share, used by over 30,000 software publishers. It is used across many platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac).{{Citation , title = March Stock of the Month: Aladdin Knowledge Systems (ALDN) , url = http://israelnewsletter.com/2008/03/12/march-stock-of-the-month-aladdin-knowledge-systems-aldn/ , author = Miller, Zack , journal = Israel Opportunity Investor , date = March 12, 2008 , access-date = November 16, 2009 , archive-date = January 7, 2009 , archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090107042911/http://israelnewsletter.com/2008/03/12/march-stock-of-the-month-aladdin-knowledge-systems-aldn/ , url-status = dead HASP, which stands for ''Hardware Against Software Piracy'', was the company's first product and evolved into a complete digital rights management suite, that includes a software only option and a back office management application, in recent years also

software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is co ...

capability.

Internet security

In the late 1990s the company started diversifying and began offering

and

network security Network security consists of the policies, processes and practices adopted to prevent, detect and monitor unauthorized access, misuse, modification, or denial of a computer network and network-accessible resources. Network security involves th ...

products, offering two product lines:

Digital identity management

eToken, portable device for

two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...

, pasdigital identity management, mainly deployed as a USB token.

Network security

eSafe a line of integrated

and

content filtering An Internet filter is software that restricts or controls the content an Internet user is capable to access, especially when utilized to restrict material delivered over the Internet via the Web, Email, or other means. Content-control software dete ...

products, protecting networks against cracked and pirated Internet-borne software.

References

External links

SafeNet Inc. Data Protection & Software Licensing website

Content Security – eSafe

eToken PASS – Aladdin Product

Aladdin Knowledge Systems website
Information technology companies of Israel Computer security software companies Copyright enforcement companies Software licenses Digital rights management Companies based in Petah Tikva Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Software companies established in 1985 1985 establishments in Israel