Cognex Purchases UK Image Company

NATICK, Mass., April 26 -- Cognex Corp. has acquired Image Industries, a privately held company based in Surrey, England. Cognex purchased all outstanding shares of the machine vision system manufacturer for cash and stock; specific financial terms were not disclosed.
Founded in 1987, Image Industries markets its machine vision systems primarily to end users in the UK. The company described its principal product, Checker, as a compact, fully integrated vision sensor employed in the electronics, automotive, and consumer goods industries for applications such as inspecting automotive electronics or cellular telephone components, as well as package and container inspection.
Cognex plans to retain the 15 employees of Image Industries and to continue operations in the company's current facility. While the sales and support staff will be integrated with Cognex's existing UK-based sales and support organization, Image Industries' research and development team is expected to operate as a remote product development group. Cognex said the group would focus on the development of highly compact, low-cost vision systems for the end-user market.
This acquisition is a very exciting follow-on to our recently announced acquisition of the vision business of Komatsu Ltd., said David Schatz, vice president of corporate development for Cognex.