Cognex Acquires Komatsu's Machine Vision Business

NATICK, Mass., April 12 -- Cognex Corp. has announced the completion of its acquisition of Komatsu Ltd.'s machine vision business. As defined in the terms of the acquisition, which was originally announced by the company on March 15, 2000, Cognex has acquired all of the rights to Komatsu's FAPEX and KV machine vision products, as well as to related technologies. In addition, all of the software development engineers, sales engineers, and other skilled employees previously associated with Komatsu's machine vision business became Cognex employees on April 3, 2000.
Cognex paid $11 million in cash for the business; depending upon certain performance factors, additional payments could total as much as $8 million. The company noted that the transaction is structured as an asset purchase, and will be accounted for under the purchase method of accounting.