- Email: [email protected]
Bioscrypt consolidates offices
BUSINESS WATCH
company news • Liska Biometry has formed an alliance with and received its first order from Sonsun Industrial e Comercial Tecnológica da Amazônia, a Brazilian company supplying ID/smart cards. SonSun has a dealer network consisting of over 300 in-country dealers. Edson Mendes, vice president of SonSun said the company would introduce Liska’s suite of advanced credentialing technology to its customer base, and it would integrate Liska’s biometric technology with its smart card portfolio. • StoreNext Retail Technologies and Pay By Touch have signed an agreement under which the two companies will market and distribute Pay By Touch’s biometric authentication and payment service to independent grocers. The joint solution minimizes grocers’ transaction costs while allowing shoppers to pay for purchases using their fingerprint. Under the agreement, StoreNext, through its nationwide dealer network, will resell the Pay By Touch storelevel hardware, software and interfaces to independent retailers in conjunction with StoreNext point-of-sale (POS) systems. • bioMETRX has been awarded a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its smartTOUCH GDO (Garage Door Opener). The patent on the Garage Door Opener itself encompasses both the design and the architecture of the device. • Titanium Group, a biometric and security solutions provider, has announced that it has signed a teaming agreement with PCCW Solutions Limited, the ICT solutions arm of PCCW Limited. As part of this teaming agreement, Titanium Group and PCCW Solutions will join forces to provide the deliverables and services with the Face Recognition Module in projects for major telecommunication corporations in the Greater China region.
6
acquisition
company news
L-1 outbids Bio-key for Comnetix
Bioscrypt consolidates offices
L-1 Identity Solutions has won its battle to acquire Canadian biometric firm Comnetix, outbidding rival biometric vendor Bio-key. Comnetix’s shareholders voted to accept L-1’s improved offer of US$17.8 million, a rise of from 82 cents to US$1.17 per share. The Bio-key bid offered US$1.29 for each ComnetiX share, payable in shares of Bio-key. However, it was the L-1 bid that had the full backing of Comnetix’s board of directors. They advised shareholders to accept L-1’s deal for various reasons including a lack of liquidity for the shares of Bio-key to be issued to the shareholders of ComnetiX. In making its decision, the Board of Directors of ComnetiX was also advised of, and took into account, Bio-key’s financial condition, including its operating performance, and the decline in the price of Bio-key’s stock over the past two years. Comnetix provides fingerprinting services to a significant portion of the Canadian market and will now form part of L-1’s IBT (Integrated Biometric Technology) division.
Bioscrypt, a provider of biometric–based access control technologies, has announced that as part of a cost reduction initiative, it will be closing its El Segundo, California, office and relocating the functions that were performed there to its Toronto facilities. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of April, 2007. Julia Webb who held the position of EVP Sales and Marketing will be assisting with the transition through to the end of April but will subsequently remain with the company only in a consulting capacity. Bioscrypt said it is aggressively pursuing new opportunities in the emerging markets of identity management and access control and it believes the best way to do this is with a centralized management structure.
Contact: Kelly Reid at ComnetiX,
Tel: +1 905 829 9988
acquisition
TSSI starts new chapter TSSI, a UK-based security solutions provider, has announced that a group of shareholders have completed the acquisition of the company. TSSI specialises in the development of solutions for three principal product areas; fingerprint biometrics, document verification and identification systems. The investment team led by Danny Chapchal acquired TSSI when its parent company Scipher plc went into administration in June 2005. The £3.3 million acquisition was structured as a £1.3 million upfront payment and a £2 million deferred consideration over four years. In the last 12 months TSSI has won a number of high profile contracts. For example, in Mexico it won a deal that protects 300,000 vehicle emissions certificates per month against fraud, while in Korea it has won a deal to supply more than five million telephone cards per year to the national telecom operator Korea Telecom. The new investment leaves the company debt free.
financial results
L-1 posts solid results L-1 Identity Solutions has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ending 31 December 2006. Revenue for the fourth quarter was US$76.3 million, compared with US$15.0 million for the same period of 2005, an increase of $61.3 million. This massive increase is predominantly related to the number of business that the group has been acquiring, including Integrated Biometrics Technology (IBT), SecuriMetrics, Iridian Technologies, Identix and SpecTal. However, US$4.2 million (approximately 28%) of the increase in the quarter was attributed to organic growth at the Viisage Technology business unit, mainly from an increased volume of US passports and facial recognition solutions. The company’s net income in the fourth quarter was US$2.0 million (US$0.03 per diluted share), compared with a net loss of US$3.0 million (US$0.15 per diluted share) in the fourth quarter of 2005. Revenue for the full year ended 31 December 2006 was US$164.4 million, compared with US$66.2 million for the previous year, an increase of US$98.2 million. US$91.0 million of the increase relates to acquisitions and US$7.2 million (approximately 11%) represents organic growth primarily from increased volume According to Robert V LaPenta, chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions: “Over the course of the year, we identified and successfully acquired key businesses, technologies, assets and services and built the new industry standard for identity solutions.”
Biometric Technology Today • February 2007
company news • Liska Biometry has formed an alliance with and received its first order from Sonsun Industrial e Comercial Tecnológica da Amazônia, a Brazilian company supplying ID/smart cards. SonSun has a dealer network consisting of over 300 in-country dealers. Edson Mendes, vice president of SonSun said the company would introduce Liska’s suite of advanced credentialing technology to its customer base, and it would integrate Liska’s biometric technology with its smart card portfolio. • StoreNext Retail Technologies and Pay By Touch have signed an agreement under which the two companies will market and distribute Pay By Touch’s biometric authentication and payment service to independent grocers. The joint solution minimizes grocers’ transaction costs while allowing shoppers to pay for purchases using their fingerprint. Under the agreement, StoreNext, through its nationwide dealer network, will resell the Pay By Touch storelevel hardware, software and interfaces to independent retailers in conjunction with StoreNext point-of-sale (POS) systems. • bioMETRX has been awarded a patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office for its smartTOUCH GDO (Garage Door Opener). The patent on the Garage Door Opener itself encompasses both the design and the architecture of the device. • Titanium Group, a biometric and security solutions provider, has announced that it has signed a teaming agreement with PCCW Solutions Limited, the ICT solutions arm of PCCW Limited. As part of this teaming agreement, Titanium Group and PCCW Solutions will join forces to provide the deliverables and services with the Face Recognition Module in projects for major telecommunication corporations in the Greater China region.
6
acquisition
company news
L-1 outbids Bio-key for Comnetix
Bioscrypt consolidates offices
L-1 Identity Solutions has won its battle to acquire Canadian biometric firm Comnetix, outbidding rival biometric vendor Bio-key. Comnetix’s shareholders voted to accept L-1’s improved offer of US$17.8 million, a rise of from 82 cents to US$1.17 per share. The Bio-key bid offered US$1.29 for each ComnetiX share, payable in shares of Bio-key. However, it was the L-1 bid that had the full backing of Comnetix’s board of directors. They advised shareholders to accept L-1’s deal for various reasons including a lack of liquidity for the shares of Bio-key to be issued to the shareholders of ComnetiX. In making its decision, the Board of Directors of ComnetiX was also advised of, and took into account, Bio-key’s financial condition, including its operating performance, and the decline in the price of Bio-key’s stock over the past two years. Comnetix provides fingerprinting services to a significant portion of the Canadian market and will now form part of L-1’s IBT (Integrated Biometric Technology) division.
Bioscrypt, a provider of biometric–based access control technologies, has announced that as part of a cost reduction initiative, it will be closing its El Segundo, California, office and relocating the functions that were performed there to its Toronto facilities. The transition is expected to be completed by the end of April, 2007. Julia Webb who held the position of EVP Sales and Marketing will be assisting with the transition through to the end of April but will subsequently remain with the company only in a consulting capacity. Bioscrypt said it is aggressively pursuing new opportunities in the emerging markets of identity management and access control and it believes the best way to do this is with a centralized management structure.
Contact: Kelly Reid at ComnetiX,
Tel: +1 905 829 9988
acquisition
TSSI starts new chapter TSSI, a UK-based security solutions provider, has announced that a group of shareholders have completed the acquisition of the company. TSSI specialises in the development of solutions for three principal product areas; fingerprint biometrics, document verification and identification systems. The investment team led by Danny Chapchal acquired TSSI when its parent company Scipher plc went into administration in June 2005. The £3.3 million acquisition was structured as a £1.3 million upfront payment and a £2 million deferred consideration over four years. In the last 12 months TSSI has won a number of high profile contracts. For example, in Mexico it won a deal that protects 300,000 vehicle emissions certificates per month against fraud, while in Korea it has won a deal to supply more than five million telephone cards per year to the national telecom operator Korea Telecom. The new investment leaves the company debt free.
financial results
L-1 posts solid results L-1 Identity Solutions has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ending 31 December 2006. Revenue for the fourth quarter was US$76.3 million, compared with US$15.0 million for the same period of 2005, an increase of $61.3 million. This massive increase is predominantly related to the number of business that the group has been acquiring, including Integrated Biometrics Technology (IBT), SecuriMetrics, Iridian Technologies, Identix and SpecTal. However, US$4.2 million (approximately 28%) of the increase in the quarter was attributed to organic growth at the Viisage Technology business unit, mainly from an increased volume of US passports and facial recognition solutions. The company’s net income in the fourth quarter was US$2.0 million (US$0.03 per diluted share), compared with a net loss of US$3.0 million (US$0.15 per diluted share) in the fourth quarter of 2005. Revenue for the full year ended 31 December 2006 was US$164.4 million, compared with US$66.2 million for the previous year, an increase of US$98.2 million. US$91.0 million of the increase relates to acquisitions and US$7.2 million (approximately 11%) represents organic growth primarily from increased volume According to Robert V LaPenta, chairman, president and CEO of L-1 Identity Solutions: “Over the course of the year, we identified and successfully acquired key businesses, technologies, assets and services and built the new industry standard for identity solutions.”
Biometric Technology Today • February 2007