Data and analytics company Equifax announced its acquisition of digital identity player Kount this week. The deal, which is pending regulatory approval, is set to close for $640 million in the first quarter of this year.
Kount was founded in 2007 and offers a range of products and solutions, including chargeback protection, account takeover and bot protection, ecommerce fraud protection, and friendly fraud prevention. The company’s identity network, the Kount Identity Trust Global Network, leverages AI to link trust and fraud data from 32 billion digital interactions, 17 billion devices, and five billion annual transactions across 200 countries and territories.
All of Kount’s products will be integrated into Equifax’s Luminate Platform, a fraud platform that combines the company’s solutions with machine learning to give clients the information they need to make better decisions about fraud.
Kount has more than 9,000 clients across the globe, including Barclays, Staples, PetSmart, and Chase. Equifax anticipates the purchase will expand its global prevalence in digital identity and fraud prevention solutions.
“The acquisition of Kount will expand Equifax’s differentiated data assets to bring global businesses the information and solutions they need to establish identity trust online,” said Equifax CEO Mark W. Begor. “Equifax is taking advantage of our strong 2020 outperformance and cash generation to make this strategic acquisition. Our data and technology cloud investments allow us to quickly and aggressively integrate new data and analytics assets like Kount into our global capabilities and bring new market leading products and solutions to our customers.”
Kount employees will continue to work from the company’s headquarters location in Boise, Idaho, and will join Equifax’s U.S. workforce.
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