Hologram Industries Acquires Advestigo, To Fight Against Numeric Counterfeiting
17 03 2009France, Paris, March 16, 2009: Hologram. Industries announced the purchase of 100% of the company ADVESTIGO, a French producer of software specialized in the fight against counterfeiting and the exchange of illicit content. Financing for this acquisition in the amount of €4.5 million will be based fully on cash available at Hologram. Industries which amounted to €10.0 million as of December 31, 2008.
Hologram. Industries designs, manufactures and sells high security optical solutions worldwide within three major markets:
- The authentication of identity documents;
- Vehicle identification;
- The protection of brand-name products.
For Hologram. Industries, this acquisition is part of a horizontal diversification strategy and, besides providing a presence in the high growth market for the fight against numeric counterfeiting, thus provides it:
* Access to a new innovative technology which, in particular, will permit it to widen its offer to authentication solutions and traceability over the internet, aimed at brand-name protection and identity documents.
* A new team of 14 persons of which 9 persons are dedicated to research and development.
Advestigo and Hologram. Industries have previously worked together successfully as partners in the development of the Global Checker product, an innovative solution for on-line verification of the authenticity of identity documents.
The combination of these two entities makes the fruitful collaboration of a promising future core business concrete. Thanks to the strengthened collaboration between experts with different scientific horizons aimed at the same objectives of fighting fraud, this will permit the creation of increasingly innovative products which are well adapted to the market. From a sales and marketing perspective, it will permit Hologram. Industries to carry the Advestigo product offering internationally, thanks to the Group`s know-how and international network.
A French producer of software conceived in order to:
* detect, measure and battle numeric counterfeiting over the internet;
* strengthen the fight against the physical counterfeiting of goods through the
operation of adapted internet based surveillance.
In particular, Advestigo capitalizes on a portfolio of patented technologies for content recognition (text, sound, image or video) based on numeric prints, and integrated software solutions which can respond to its customers` needs.
Its cutting edge solutions AdvestiSEARCH and AdvestiGATE are currently targeted towards the markets for numeric media (on-line music, TV, cinema, games and software….) and for national security (public sector and security services). The
AdvestiSEARCH solution which is used industrially by the main copyright holders in France most notably won the Grand Prize for the “Information Society Technology” under the auspices of the European Commission.
Advestigo, which is based in Saint Cloud, France, is a member of the Microsoft IDEES program, of IBM PartnerWorld and the Cap Digital competitive pole. It`s supported by OSEO Innovation, the SGDN and the DGA, the National Agency for Research and the Ile-de-France Region through the PM`UP program. The SACEM, the SCPP, the National Police Force, the ALPA, the SPPF, Canal+, SonyBMG, Merlin, M6 and France Télévision are among its main customers.
