PGP Corporation was a company that sold Pretty Good Privacy computer software. It was founded in 2002, and acquired by

Symantec Symantec may refer to: *An American consumer software company now known as Gen Digital Inc. *A brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Inc. Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier ...

in 2010, and by Broadcom in 2019.

History

PGP Corporation was co-founded in June 2002 by Jon Callas and Phil Dunkelberger (who became CEO), based in Menlo Park, California. It was funded by Rob Theis, general partner, Doll Capital Management and Terry Garnett, general partner, Venrock Associates. The company owned the Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) software, which was originally developed by Phil Zimmermann (who had earlier started a company of a similar name). Originally written in 1991, PGP was one of the first freely and publicly available implementations of public-key cryptography. It was originally used to allow individuals to communicate securely through

bulletin board system A bulletin board system (BBS), also called computer bulletin board service (CBBS), is a computer server running software that allows users to connect to the system using a terminal program. Once logged in, the user can perform functions such as ...

s. PGP later became standardized and supported by many other applications, including email. PGP Corporation acquired the code and rights to the name from Network Associates (NAI) in August 2002. The company released version 9 of the software in 2005. PGP Corporation's focus shifted towards the corporate market. In 2004, the company announced plans to integrate with

anti-virus technology. In 2009, Callas left to be a security consultant. In February 2010, the company acquired certificate authority TC TrustCenter and its parent company, ChosenSecurity, to form its PGP TrustCenter division. On April 29, 2010,

Symantec Corp. Gen Digital Inc. (formerly Symantec Corporation and NortonLifeLock) is a multinational software company co-headquartered in Tempe, Arizona and Prague, Czech Republic. The company provides cybersecurity software and services. Gen is a Fortu ...

announced the acquisition of PGP Corporation for about $300 million cash. The merger was completed in June of that year. On August 9, 2019, Broadcom Inc. announced they would be acquiring the Enterprise Security software division of Symantec, which includes PGP Corporation.

References

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External links

PGP Corporation web site
Companies based in Menlo Park, California Cryptography companies Gen Digital acquisitions Software companies established in 2002 2010 mergers and acquisitions Software companies of the United States 2002 establishments in the United States 2002 establishments in California Companies established in 2002