Vivotech announced today it has sold its reader business to U.S.-based ID Tech, a maker of contactless, magnetic-stripe, bar code and other readers and PIN entry devices.
Vivotech, which said July 27 it had cut its workforce following delays in finding a buyer for its reader business, said that with the sale to ID Tech, it would continue with its plan to focus on its NFC software business. This business includes trusted service management, a mobile wallet and a platform to deliver loyalty rewards.
“Now that the sale of the reader business is complete, we are focusing 100% of our energy on the continued support of our customers, contracts and partners, and on growth of this (software) business,” the company said in a statement.
Vivotech did not disclose the sale price of its reader business, which the company has said in the past has shipped nearly 1 million readers globally, including many of the readers installed at U.S. merchant locations over the past seven or eight years.
The vendor had also been in talks to sell the reader business to the parent of China-based point-of-sale terminal supplier PAX Technology, a source earlier told NFC Times.
Vivotech has not responded to questions from NFC Times on how many employees would remain after its cutbacks.
NFC Times reported late last month, citing sources, that Vivotech executives told employees June 27 that the company planned to cease operations, but would continue to fulfill some contracts–as it seeks to reach deals to sell its reader and possibly the software businesses.
A source attributed the move to cash-flow problems, despite nearly $100 million in venture capital funding Vivotech has raised since 2001.
But Vivotech in a statement posted on its Web site later in the day insisted that its “business fundamentals are strong and orders and contracts are building in both its reader and software businesses.”
It denied it was ceasing operations, but instead said it was in the “process of restructuring operations” because the efforts to sell the reader business had moved “slower than anticipated.”
It said it had, therefore, “reduced its team to a smaller group, with the goals of maintaining customer relationship and core contract work and to address our supplier relationships and commitments.”
Article source: http://nfctimes.com/news/vivotech-sells-contactless-reader-business
