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Local Tech Wire
WINSTON –SALEM, N.C. – Serial high-tech entrepreneur Andrew “Flip” Flipowski is expanding his InterAct Public Safety Systems firm by acquiring a business unit of a longtime partner.
said Friday it would acquire the Law Enforcement Division of Bio-Key International in a deal valued at $11 million.
InterAct says the deal makes it the “the world’s largest public safety software company” with more than 2,000 customers on three continents.
The acquisition includes a variety of mobile solutions.
InterActive, which is privately held, raised $28 million in new funding last November. Foundation Capital and Bay Partners provided the funding and became part-owners of InterActive along with Filipowski’s SilkRoad Ventures.
“As a result of this acquisition, we have the unique opportunity to deliver the most advanced mobile law enforcement solution to ever hit the market, and to introduce a new population of customers to the advantages inherent in the InterAct Connections Framework,” said Filipowski, the company’s chairman and chief executive officer.
“Looking ahead, we will build on the best attributes of both mobile product suites to give first responders the most advanced resources with which they can protect their communities,” he added.
Some 30 people work for the Bio-key unit involved. Asked if they might be relocated to the Triad, a company spokesperson said “no determination has been made as of yet in terms of specific business operations.”
“When the deal is finalized, those 30 employees will be InterAct employees,” the spokesperson added.
“InterAct places an extremely high value on the worth of its personnel,” he said. “They are what drives the company forward.”
InterAct, which currently has some 160 employees, already utilizes Bio-Key solutions. The company plans to offer an integrated mobile suite in the near future.
Bio-key products enable public safety workers to get quick access to information such as warrants, real-time data and images on wireless laptops and smartphones.
Bio-key plans to focus on its biometric identity products.
