Utimaco, a hardware security modules provider, has received approval to complete its acquisition of the Atalla Hardware Security Module and Enterprise Secure Key Manager product lines of Micro Focus International.

The company plans to use this to improve its position in the blockchain and payments markets, according to a press release.

HSMS are computing devices used to protect important data such as digital keys and signatures. Atalla's HSM is particularly used for non-cash retail payment transactions, cardholder authentication and cryptographic keys.

The Enterprise Secure Key Manager is a centralized key management solution, which allows companies to create, secure and audit access to encryption keys, according to the release.

"The traditional separation between 'payment HSM' and 'general purpose HSM' will eventually cease to exist, which is why our goal is to focus on innovation and invest in building one common platform for payment and general purpose HSM customers," Malte Pollman, CEO, Utimaco, said in the release. "In a market driven by dependency on suppliers, we are the company acting in the best interest of customers — with a clear understanding of how architectures need to come together, providing the product in all required form factors: PCI, LAN and cloud."