The Jenoptik Group has acquired all shares of the British company Essa Technology (Domestic and Commercial Security Limited). The transaction was completed on January 19, 2017. Both parties agreed not to disclose details on the purchase price.
“This strategic acquisition is a further step in the development towards an integrated solutions provider for public safety and security as well as future smart cities”, Jenoptik President & CEO Michael Mertin stated. Essa Technology is a specialist in police automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) back office and traffic enforcement software.
Based in Plymouth, England, the company currently generates revenue in the lower single-digit million euro range and will be integrated into the Mobility segment of Jenoptik. The company’s back office software allows for ANPR data to be efficiently processed and evaluated, for example providing real-time alerts to a police car, from a central server.
Michael Mertin: “Essa Technology complements our portfolio ideally, making us a single-source provider of hardware, software and service models for enhanced security and traffic safety worldwide.”
Jenoptik is a globally leading manufacturer of traffic safety solutions and has every important sensor technology for traffic monitoring at its disposal: laser scanner, radar, piezo technology, video analysis and induction loops. Thanks to the combination of several sensor technologies with software and data management, Jenoptik gained access to Traffic Service Provision and to the new market segment of toll monitoring. With its toll monitoring pillar Jenoptik is one of the new systems suppliers for truck toll monitoring on federal highways in Germany from 2018 on.
Jenoptik had last strengthened its position with the acquisition of Vysionics in the United Kingdom at the end of 2014. The product and service portfolio of the company, which changed its name to Jenoptik Traffic Solutions UK, in particular includes solutions for section speed control and ANPR.