On Track Innovations scoops up SuperCom
At a cost of $21 million, OTI acquires a number of critical anti-countefeiting and production patents; company looks to expand ePassport and national ID business; Israeli industry consolidation continues
The Israeli contactless card industry took another step towards consolidation last week when Rosh Pina, Israel-based On Track Innovations (OTI) — best known for its ID initiatives in China and at border crossings in Israel — announced that it would buy the main assets of Qadima, Israel-based SuperCom. The deal brings SuperCom’s International Project Solution unit, accounting for 95 percent of SuperCom’s revenue, under the OTI umbrella at a not inconsiderable price of approximately $21 million. Stripped of its main income-generator, SuperCom will refocus its efforts on credentialing first responders and on developing its Active RF product line.
For its part, the deal gives OTI a stronger position in the identity solutions market — particularly the ePassport subsector — as the company is now able to offer a complete Web-based enrollment, population registration, and document issuance suite of services. SuperCom held a number of critical anti-counterfeiting and forgery patents, as well as those for secure printing and card manufacturing. OTI CEO Oded Bashan said:
We believe our competitive position will be further enhanced by SuperCom’s intellectual property portfolio, which will result in OTI becoming the only vendor in the market able to provide a complete electronic ID in-house turnkey project with complete end-to-end product solutions.
-read more in this company news release
