Agfa-ProImage Deal is Done

By: Jim Rosenberg Agfa Gevaert, Mortsel, Belgium, "is acquiring the assets of ProImage worldwide," ProImage America Inc. President John Iolacci confirmed yesterday. The deal "has been signed," he said.

Headquartered in Or-Akiva, Israel, ProImage's U.S. subsidiary is based in Princeton, N.J.

Rumored for some time -- and to be formally announced next week by ProImage -- the acquisition gives Agfa an established share of the market for newspaper workflow software. In the U.S. alone, 6-year-old ProImage counts more than 50 customers and more than 250 installed sites.

Iolacci told E&P that under Agfa ownership, "ProImage will continue to [function as] a separate entity" and that nothing will change for ProImage customers. The acquisition, he added, will affect only ProImage R&D, which will see its staff increase and "will be used for more than ProImage products."

Though a major supplier of film and film recorders, plates and platesetters, and proofers, Agfa until recently had less success in this country selling its workflow solutions. Its biggest computer-to-plate customer, Gannett Co., is now ProImage America's biggest customer. Several years ago, Gannett chose ProImage NewsWay software to manager page output at its USA Today sites after first trying Agfa's IntelliNet.

Last fall, competitor Creo bought the NewsFlow component technology used in that Agfa software from its developer, HiT Internet Technologies (along with its press-control interface), using it to enhance its own Prinergy workflow products and create the Synapse NewsManager for newspapers. Agfa, meanwhile, continued to support its IntelliNet users, then introduced Arkitex workflow, which now is installed at more than 150 U.S. sites, ranging from film imaging at New York's Daily News (film imaging) to The Desert Sun, Palm Springs (violet platesetting).

More recently, Creo prevailed in a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by Agfa when the judge ruled Agfa's multi-cassette plate-loading patents unenforceable owing to "acts of inequitable conduct" whereby Agfa failed to supply pertinent information to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

ProImage is the second deal that Agfa concluded in recent days. Late last month it completed its acquisition of Lastra (E&P Online, Aug. 11, 13), supplier of plates and platesetters, including the products of Western Lithotech, which Lastra acquired from Mitsubishi Kasei in 2002.

Earlier in August, Agfa sold its photo film unit, announcement of which occasioned a 13% rise in its share price. Soon after, Reuters quoted a UBS Warburg analyst describing Agfa as attractive for takeover. Yesterday, Agfa's corporate spokeswoman wrote in an e-mail that her company never comments on such issues, "except that we are glad that [the analyst] thinks our stock is undervalued."