Frances’s SAFRAN Group yesterday said it has completed its acquisition of 81 percent of General Electric‘s [GE] Homeland Protection business, which will report to SAFRAN’s subsidiary Sagem Securite.
The $580 million cash deal gives SAFRAN an entirely new platform of capabilities as well as customers in the security space, in particular checked baggage explosives detection systems and explosive trace detectors used by the Transportation Security Administration and airports worldwide to enhance aviation security. The Homeland Protection business also has products, contracts and capabilities in chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear detection.
GE retains a 19 percent stake in the Homeland Protection business and a seat on its Board of Directors.
Sagem Securite is a world leader in identity management solutions, providing biometric matching software, credentialing and access control products. MorphoTrak, a subsidiary of Safran’s operations in the United States, was recently selected by Lockheed Martin [LMT] to provide the fingerprint matching software for the FBI’s Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. MorphoTrak, which is the incumbent supplier of fingerprint matching software on the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System that will be replaced by NGI, bested Cogent Systems [COGT] and Japan’s NEC for the new work.
Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor for NGI, which will permit fingerprint matching against 10 prints, and will eventually incorporate matching software against other biometric modalities.