Apple Buys AuthenTec

Apple acquires biometric firm for $350 million (San Antonio Business Journal)

Apple Inc. has reportedly paid $350 million to acquire Melbourne, Fla.-based AuthenTec Inc., a maker of fingerprint authentication technology, Bloomberg reports.
...
The deal will help Apple improve its biometric features to improve security on future releases of the iPad and iPhone.

For some perspective, Safran bought L-1's biometrics business for $1.6 billion in late 2010.

Josh Franklin at Seeking Alpha deserves a special prize. He called it here on June 4 when AUTH shares were trading for about $4.60/s. Pre-open today is about $8.16. Since his article at the time disclosed his long position in AUTH, he's probably already counting his special prize as I type this.

The Seeking Alpha piece explains a lot of the rationale for the purchase.