In a bid to focus on its communications business Motorola has announced it is selling its biometric arm to SAFRAN subsidiary, Sagem Securite. The definitive agreement includes Motorola’s Printrak trademark. The acquisition has been approved by Motorola and SAFRAN.

Motorola´s biometric business unit, headquartered in Anaheim, California, USA, designs, develops, integrates and maintains automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) for law enforcement, civil and commercial customers around the world. The firm serves national, state, county and municipal agencies internationally, and provides integration solutions and systems for more than 300 customers in 40 countries in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Analysts said that Motorola had been looking to sell its AFIS business for some time. Jean-Paul Herteman, CEO of SAFRAN commented: "This acquisition enables Sagem Securite to strengthen its position in the US market for homeland security where it is already committed to offer world-class identification solutions to government, state and local markets. This acquisition is a continuation of SAFRAN´s long history of investing in the US. It is also an important step in our plan to improve our product offering, expand production in the US, and reduce costs."

Jean-Paul Jainsky, CEO of Sagem Securite added, "Through this acquisition, Sagem Securite, its existing customers, and Motorola´s existing biometrics customers are expected to benefit from increased efficiencies and customer responsiveness from the merger of the two businesses."

"Biometrics is a very dynamic business that we believe requires companies to specialize in the technology," said Gene Delaney, president, Government & Public Safety, Motorola. "To best serve our customers and employees, Motorola made a judgment that we need to concentrate and lead in our area of strength - delivering best-in-class mission critical communications solutions for government, public safety and commercial customers."

The transaction is targeted to close first quarter of 2009 at the latest and is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.