Company Announcement - HID Global®, a worldwide leader in secure identity solutions, has announced that parent company ASSA ABLOY has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IAI industrial systems B.V. , a leading provider of high-quality personalization solutions for identity documents, from its parent company DOCDATA N.V. The acquisition will bring together highly complementary offerings for government-to-citizen and other identification solutions, while positioning HID Global for overall growth and innovation in the high-volume document personalization market.

Globally renowned for quality and precision, IAI is a high-tech engineering company that has delivered personalization equipment and security features for passports and identity cards to governments and integrators around the world since 1990. IAI expands HID Global’s portfolio of card printing/encoding solutions with the addition of centralized card personalization equipment and passport personalization capabilities for the delivery of end-to-end citizen identity solutions.

“Our acquisition of IAI addresses the growing demand for secure citizen identification for government organizations around the world,” said Stefan Widing, president and CEO of HID Global. “With this acquisition, we are able to expand HID Global’s market presence in the government-to-citizen ID space and other markets as well as further extend the IAI technology as part of our commitment to provide innovative solutions that enhance customer value. Customers who are seeking greater control of the card personalization process will benefit from the options that HID Global is now uniquely positioned to deliver.”

CEO of DOCDATA N.V.Michiel Alting von Geusau said, “Our customers are continually striving to stay ahead of the counterfeiters and enhance the security of their passports and identity cards. The combination of IAI’s personalization equipment with HID Global’s best-in-class identity documents and solutions will enable customers to create high-security citizen IDs and passports, which will help protect the identities of citizens in an increasingly challenging world environment.”

The acquisition also includes FEHA LaserTec GmbH, a subsidiary of IAI. IAI is headquartered in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, where it will continue to maintain its operations. The company’s products will be sold under the IAI brand for the foreseeable future. HID Global’s government ID business provides highly secure, custom citizen ID solutions to governments worldwide. The company has shipped more than 150 million RFID products in over 50 countries for major projects that include national ID, e-passport, foreign resident ID, worker ID, driver’s license and vehicle registration programs worldwide. Rob Haslam, vice president of Government ID Solutions, is responsible for the strategic development and worldwide expansion of HID Global’s citizen ID business.