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‘Buy-and-build’ homeland security specialist Digital Barriers has made its seventh small acquisition. It’s acquiring French video analytics software firm Keeneo for an initial consideration of €2m, of which €400k will be paid in shares. Digital Barriers is also assuming debt of up to €1m and paying a deferred consideration dependent on performance of up to €4.5m.
Keeneo was spun-out from INRA, the French institute for computer science and automatic control research, in 2005. In FY10, it reported a turnover of just over €1m and made a loss before tax of €0.5m. Its video analytics software enables the detection of human intrusion and other pre-defined incidents within a targeted 3-D area. Keeneo has customers in the security, aviation, mass-transit, energy and industrial sectors in Europe and, increasingly, the Middle East (a target market for Digital Barriers).
This is another acquisition from Digital Barriers on the physical side of security, rather than cyber side where the hype is stronger and prices therefore higher. It will sit nicely alongside other recent acquisitions in the visual surveillance space, including Waterfall Solutions, Essential Viewing and COE. The analytics capabilities that Keeneo brings to the party should appeal to Digital Barriers’ security and defence customers, not least because they promise to increase efficiency/reduce costs.
