NFC Times Exclusive – The public relations debacle Gemalto faced following revelations last month that U.S. and UK spy agencies had stolen keys from its SIM cards is not the only problem the France-based vendor has had to deal with regarding SIMs.
Hit by stagnant revenue for the cards, which remains its largest single product category, combined with falling demand for TSM services around SIM-based NFC payments and facing questions about the long-term viability of the SIM card itself, it’s not surprising that Gemalto is keen to move the focus to other topics.
All of this explains much of the talk last Thursday by Gemalto in its year-end earnings conference call centering on its payment and identity division, including growing EMV card shipments to U.S. banks–with CEO Olivier Piou making sure to mention that the division was now larger than the vendor’s historically dominant mobile division, if one includes revenue from Gemalto’s recent $890 million acquisition of data security firm Safenet.
