IDEX’s acquisition of PicoField assets – supplemental disclosure
IDEX ASA disclosed on 23 September 2013 an acquisition of assets and intellectual property rights from PicoField Technologies, Inc. The final agreement was entered into on 24 September 2013.
IDEX is a leading fingerprint biometrics company with the vision to ensure individuals a safe, secure, and user-friendly use of personal ID. IDEX offers the SmartFinger® technology platform based on the company’s core intellectual property rights, including a unique cross-licence with Apple. SmartFinger includes patent-protected fingerprint imaging principle, sensing scheme and chip design. The current product is a swipe fingerprint sensor, which has superior biometric performance. This sensor is expected to be available in samples for manufacturers by the end of the year and in smartphones by mid-2014.
During 2013, there has been increasing interest in and demand for low-cost touch sensors for mobile handsets. Both Microsoft and PayPal have also made statements to emphasize this market demand.
IDEX recently commenced a programme for commercialising its low-cost touch sensor with high biometric performance tailored for consumer devices, building on its current intellectual property and know-how. PicoField possessed a patent and pending applications as well as other intellectual property relating to touch sensors. By acquiring the intellectual property from PicoField and employing three industry respected executives from PicoField, IDEX will strongly enhance its ongoing touch sensor programme. The addition of PicoField’s intellectual property rights, which are complimentary to IDEX’s current intellectual property rights, also expands the field of IDEX’s patent protection which is of critical importance to OEM customers.
IDEX plans to launch a touch sensor with a highly competitive, step-change price/performance ratio aimed at the mass markets. By addition of the staff from PicoField, the IDEX team will rapidly expand resources and, more importantly, increase the amount of domain experience gained from productization, ramp-up and volume production.
Furthermore, the new employees, of which two were co-founders of Validity Sensors, Inc., each have more than a decade of experience in the fingerprint industry, add a vast network of customer contacts and also supply-chain players. This will increase IDEX’s presence in the important US market and technology clusters. It also supplements IDEX’s current supply-chain capabilities and product delivery capacity.
The transaction
IDEX has acquired certain intellectual property assets and rights from PicoField. The transfer of title has been effectuated and only registrations are pending.
PicoField has agreed to release the three employees that will be employed by IDEX. The employment will commence in October 2013.
The purchase price
The consideration amounts to about USD 4.5 million in cash, of which 3/4 has been paid. The remaining amount will be paid in stages, subject to achievement of certain milestone deliveries. The payments will be funded from IDEX’s current cash position. IDEX will also make defined payments based on product shipments that include specified PicoField intellectual property.
The acquired assets
PicoField is a US company engaged in touch fingerprint sensor design and development tailored for consumer devices. The company is privately held. IDEX has acquired assets and intellectual property rights from PicoField, but not the company as such or its business. Specific elements of the acquired technology are licensed to a third party. The licence is non-exclusive.
Other agreements in connection with the transaction
PicoField’s founders, Fred Benkley, Thar Casey and David Geoffery, will be employed by IDEX’s US subsidiary, IDEX America Inc. The employment agreements are on market terms and include grant of a combined total of 1,500,000 incentive subscription rights.
27 September 2013
IDEX ASA
Web: www.idexbiometrics.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/idexasa
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/company/idex-asa
Contact: Erling Svela, CFO, +47 4062 1040, erling.svela(at)idexbiometrics.com
About IDEX
IDEX ASA specialises in fingerprint imaging and recognition technology. IDEX’s vision is to ensure individuals a safe, secure, and user-friendly use of personal ID. IDEX has developed the award-winning SmartFinger® technology platform based on the company’s core intellectual property, including the patented fingerprint imaging principle, sensing scheme and chip design. Combined with core software solutions for imaging and authentication, the SmartFinger technology enables on-device enrollment, template storage and verification within the very same module. SmartFinger solutions can be seamlessly integrated into a variety of embedded applications such as mobile phones, one-time password devices, Smartcards, payment and ID cards, payment terminals, access control devices and biometric security and login tokens.
IDEX ASA (ticker IDEX) is a Norwegian public company listed at the Oslo Axess marketplace on the Oslo Børs (Oslo stock exchange). For more information, please visit www.idexbiometrics.com or contact IDEX at mailbox@idexbiometrics.com
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