PORT TOWNSEND — Intellicheck Mobilisa Inc., a Port Townsend-based company with global reach in access control and wireless security systems, has acquired Minnesota-based Positive Access Corp. for $2.225 million, in a merger deal that will add four new employees and brings Intellicheck Mobilisa’s staff to 60.
“I’m really happy about it because it’s our leading competitor,” said Nelson Ludlow, Intellicheck Mobilisa’s president and chief executive officer.
“Even though it is a small company, it protects all the lost opportunities.”
Ludlow estimates that about $1 million in revenues will be generated as a result of the deal.
The new acquisition comes about a year and a half after Ludlow’s founding company, Mobilisa, merged with Intelli-Check, absorbing 25 of the former Woodbury, N.Y., company’s staff into Mobilisa’s headquarters at Glen Cove Industrial Park on Otto Street in Port Townsend.
Working since January
Ludlow said he has been working on the acquisition of Positive Access since January, visiting its headquarters in Eden Prairie, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis.
The transaction closed effective Monday and involves a combination of stock and cash.
The four new employees have chosen to remain in Minnesota, Ludlow said, which adds the new office to the string of other national locations Intellicheck Mobilisa has established in recent years.
Besides the main office in Port Townsend, the company has offices in Washington, D.C., and New York with one- or two-person offices in Boston, Atlanta, Norfolk, San Diego and Cincinnati.
“We’re trying to sell nationwide, and that’s my plan,” Ludlow said. “But my business model is still to have the lion’s share of the employees here and bring the economy [from sales] here.”
The terms of the Positive Access deal include $625,000 in initial cash payment, and $800,000 of IDN stock, with remaining payments in stock and cash at 12 and 24 months from closing.
As part of the agreement, the two principals of Positive Access, Fred Zimmerman, chief executive officer and co-founder, and Charles Bacas, chief of market development and co-founder, will remain as consultants for one year to aid in the acquisition and transition process.
“I’m very pleased that the founders of Positive Access will be staying on through this transition process,” Ludlow said.
“They bring years of experience to the table, and we are glad to have them with us. They believe in the combined company and are now shareholders.”
License reading software
As a competitor, Positive Access Corp. was second behind Intellicheck Mobilisa for developing driver’s license reading software.
Positive Access Corp. developed and marketed driver’s license software developer kits. Its software is included in driver’s license scanning systems at hundreds of locations, adding two new Fortune 20 companies, bringing the combined company’s customer list to a total of seven of the top 20.
Ludlow said he could not name the companies Intellicheck Mobilisa will now serve, but they include a major retailer and a phone company.
“Acquiring Positive Access was a logical step for Intellicheck Mobilisa. Its market space was similar to our commercial identity product line,” Ludlow said.
“With this accretive deal, we have absorbed the company as a subsidiary to operate under our commercial business group, and the clients we pick up as a result offer increased revenue generating opportunities.”
Steve Williams, Intellicheck Mobilisa’s chief operating officer, said customers will have access to Intellicheck Mobilisa’s wide range of hardware and software products beyond a software developer kit, “providing one-stop shopping for our identity customers.”
Intellicheck Mobilisa has developed wireless technology and identity systems for various applications including mobile and handheld wireless devices for the government, military and commercial markets.
Products include the Defense ID system, used in more than 70 military and federal locations, and ID-Check, which reads, analyzes, and verifies encoded data in magnetic stripes and barcodes on government-issue indentification cards from U.S. and Canadian jurisdictions for financial, hospitality and retail markets.
Ludlow founded the company in Port Townsend in 2001 with his wife, Bonnie, the company’s senior vice president.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
