keyware goes public and makes more acquisitions
TRANSCRIPT
Financial
Keyware goes public andmakes more acquisitions
Keyware Technologies (Btt June ’00, p6) hasended months of anticipation and launched itscompany on the Belgium-based stock exchange,EASDAQ (European Association of SecuritiesDealers Automated Quotations).
EASDAQ is a screen-based market which useselectronic trading systems similar to those usedby NASDAQ in the USA.
The company’s first trading day was 23 June,when it launched at approximately US$7.2. Sincethe launch, there has been little movement in price,however.
The company hoped to raise US$40 millionthrough the issue of new ordinary shares, whichrepresents approximately 25% of the issued sharecapital of the company.
Keyware shares are dealing under the symbol“KEYW” and can be followed on the EASDAQwebsite – http://www.easdaq.be
President and CEO of Keyware Francis Declercqcommented: “The initial public offering is part ofKeyware’s objective to become the world’s lead-ing provider of biometric authentication softwaresolutions. Keyware therefore intends to expandinto high-volume markets through further strate-gic acquisitions and achieve widespread adop-tion of its layered biometric verification technol-ogy through licensing.”
Keyware was founded in 1996 and is split intoa technology and solutions division and an appli-cations division (which is focusing on net-work/internet security, physical access controland smart cards). The company has beefed upthese divisions significantly in recent months,with some of the more recent acquisitions listedbelow:• In December 1999, Keyware bought integra-tor Lex Solutions (Btt June ’00, p9) to support itsgrowing list of OEM partners;• Keyware entered the access control securitymarket through its acquisitions of IDTech (BttApril ’00, p6) and TechTalk (Btt March ’00, p6) ear-lier this year;• Keyware formed its KeywareCards BusinessUnit in May with the acquisition of AlacarteEngineering, which provides software for smartcard applications.
• In March, Keyware acquired Riverland NextGeneration and made an agreement to purchaseNewton Online Solutions in May;
Meanwhile, Keyware Technologies has signeda deal with G2 Speech to integrate its voice ver-ification software into G2 Speech’s dictation appli-cation. This collaboration will mean that any doc-uments created with the G2 Speech application willcontain an electronic voice print, proving theauthorship of the material. The companies believethis added biometric functionality will be a big ben-efit in the legal and medical industries.
In another partner announcement, Keywareand Proton World have extended the relation-ship they announced earlier this year by signingan OEM agreement. Proton World will now offeran additional biometrics component, using theKeyware layered biometric verification (LBV)system, as an add-on to other applications in itssmart card-based range of products. Proton willalso gain licensing rights for use of the componentby third parties.Contact: Elizabeth Marshall at Keyware Technologies,Tel: +1 781 933 1311, email: [email protected]
Fingerprint
Infineon forms Trust forsilicon security companies
A number of biometric companies have signedup to join a new group called the Silicon Trust.Founded by silicon fingerprint sensor manufac-turer Infineon Technologies (Btt June ’00, p8), theTrust is designed to be an industry platform forsilicon-based security technology. It will focus onareas such as the computing, secure e- and m-commerce, telecommunications and automotiveindustries.
Initial partners include: Astro Datensysteme,Biometric Identification, CE Infosys, Dermalog,Faktum, Mytec Technologies, Precise Biometrics,Siemens Information and CommunicationsMobile, Siemens PSE Austria and Veritouch.
According to Infineon, the idea to create theprogramme was sparked following a deluge ofrequests from visitors at an industry show con-cerning devices, applications and systems thatcontained its security technology.Contact: Monika Sonntag at Infineon Technologies,Tel: +49 89 234 24497, Fax: +49 89 234 28482,email: monika [email protected]
Btt July/August 2000 •• 5
News