Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd. (Nasdaq: ALDN; TASE: ALDN) has signed contracts with Consortium for Indian Information Technology Education (CIITE) to supply the company’s eToken authentication solution to secure its network of e-Learning resources throughout India, and to supply its eSafe content security solution to 28,000 campuses of CIITE’s 6,800 member institutions.
The company did not disclose the size of the contracts, but market sources estimate the eToken deal at $38-57 million, assuming a price of $10-15 per student.
Over the next three years, Aladdin will supply eToken to 3.8 million CIITE students wishing to access the CIITE Educational Portal. eToken will secure access to online academic services, including online libraries, video-based learning, and IT-related texts. CIITE's initiative emphasizes the use of technology among the country's current and upcoming generations of young professionals. CIITE officials selected the Aladdin eToken key after an evaluation process lasting more than a year.
Aladdin has also provided CIITE with an Aladdin Authentication Course an academic-level DVD training course detailing authentication and security. This course will be used by students in CIITE-supported institutes and high-level educational organizations. Over the last year, the course was adopted to meet special CIITE requirements.
Aladdin global vice president of sales and marketing Elinor Nissensohn aid, "We are honored to be chosen by CIITE as their nationwide authentication and security partner, providing high-quality security and educational materials that will benefit India's IT students. Aladdin has recently established its Indian subsidiary in Mumbai and we are going to accelerate our growth and hiring in India to better support CIITE."
Aladdin CFO Aviram Shemer, “This contract is non-standard. We really like doing business in these places. The opportunities are great, because of the large populations with real security needs. It’s therefore easy to do business there, in contrast to North America or Europe, where we’re on a level playing field with the competition, and no one has an edge over another.
Aladdin predicts $95-102 million sales for 2007, not including the CIITE contract. Shemer says, “We don’t yet have an order in hand. We hope we’ll soon begin supplying the orders for eToken, but there’s nothing concrete to indicate that we’ll get orders in the coming quarters. Given the size of this deal, we may revise our results upwards, but for now, this is the thin edge of the wedge.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on April 5, 2007
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