NEC has written a £475 million cheque for Northgate Public Services (NPS).
The move is aprt of NEC’s bid to spruce up its international safety business. NPS develops software and services for the British police and government sector organisations.
NPS was owned by private equity firm Cinven and employs approximately 1,400 software engineers throughout the UK and India. NEC’s uses biometrics technologies and face recognition and fingerprint recognition technologies to provide its international safety business. This side of the business has been doing rather well in Japan and wants to expand internationally.
The UK and Australian public sector markets are being seen as potential growth areas.
NPS will keep its name and leadership and will integrate some of NEC’s technologies in biometric scanning and facial recognition into its platforms.
Takashi Niino, president and CEO of NEC Corporation, said: “We are proud to have Northgate Public Services, one of the UK’s leading technology companies, joining the NEC Group.”
“With this acquisition, NEC aims to support and strengthen NPS’ technologies for police operations, establish new safety solutions based on a common business platform, and to further develop international markets largely focused on countries within the Commonwealth.”
Stephen Callaghan, CEO of Northgate Public Services, said his colleagues and leadership team have worked incredibly hard over the past two years to get the company into shape operationally and financially.
“Combined with NEC’s business, we will now be able to offer a wider suite of services and software to our existing client base, while expanding in new geographies and technology sectors,” he said.
This acquisition is expected to be done and dusted by the end of the month.
