Comodo Group has announced that the Comodo Certificate Authority (Comodo CA) business has been acquired by Francisco Partners. The news came on the same day that DigiCert announced the completion of its acquisition of Symantec’s CA assets. Both deals happening on the same day caused some surprise around the security markets. The Symantec deal was expected after its problems over the last year with this business. What wasn’t expected was Comodo also divesting itself of its CA assets. Comodo CA is the market leader by some distance.

Former President Barack Obama’s foundation is hosting a two-day summit in Chicago starting Tuesday, aimed at fostering a “hands-on exchange on ideas” to address top global concerns. The summit will feature discussions on topics including communicating across differences, art and culture’s role in creating productive cities, understanding race in relation to one’s civic identity, motivating young people to choose a civic path and technology’s role in creating equitable and inclusive communities, according to the website.

Private equity firm Francisco Partners announced on Oct. 31 that it has acquired the SSL/TLS Certificate Authority (CA) business from security firm Comodo Group. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed. "This is a carve-out of the Comodo SSL business, which is now going to be a separate legal and operational entity," Bill Holtz, CEO of Comodo CA told eWEEK.  Holtz is joined on the management team of the new Comodo CA business with Chairman of the Board Bill Conner, who is also the current CEO of network security vendor SonicWall. Comodo Group founder Melih Abdulhayoglu, will retain a minority stake in the Comodo CA business, as well as taking an observers role on the Comodo CA board of directors.

Turkey's national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) is sending revamped planes to its flights to Colombia and Panama to give passengers traveling to Latin America and back extra comfort. Cemal Kaya, Turkish Airlines’ manager in Colombia, Panama and Venezuela, told Anadolu Agency on Monday that the planes serving the Colombia and Panama line have been renovated for a more comfortable flight. Explaining that despite its marathon 13-hour length, the Istanbul-Bogota-Panama line has many passengers, Kaya said that with the renovated planes THY started to give better service to its customers and has gotten lots of positive feedback.