VeriSign grabs Retail Solutions

VeriSign has bought point-of-sale data provider Retail Solutions for $24 million in cash.

The company, whose services include securing data and voice networks, plans to add RSI's technology to its supply chain service platform, it said in its announcement Wednesday. RSI's software deals with operational point-of-sale data, including information about volume and the value of product sales through retailers. This data can be combined with other technologies, like radio frequency identification, to drive down costs.

RSI has about 130 customers and 50 workers.

"The retail industry is increasingly looking for new avenues of visibility from manufacturing plant to store floor, and demand data--including POS information--is a critical component," Mark McLaughlin, senior vice president of naming and directory services at VeriSign, said in a statement. "With the addition of RSI, we add over one hundred customers and billions of streamed data records to our platform."

In a related move in the retail segment, VeriSign and the WorldWide Retail Exchange have signed a deal under which the company will offer point-of-sale data services to about 30 retail members of the exchange globally. Point-of-sale data services will be integrated with the WWRE platform.

VeriSign appears to be on a takeover spree. This month it acquired content aggregator and distributor Moreover Technologies for $30 million, and Weblogs.com and its "ping" service for $2.3 million.