Posiflex Technology Inc (振樺電子), a Taiwan-based point-of-sale terminal brand, yesterday said it had clinched a deal to fully acquire Portwell Inc (瑞傳科技) for NT$5.51 billion (US$181 million) to broaden its business scope to the industrial computer segment.
The acquisition came less than a year after Posiflex unveiled a takeover bid to buy KIOSK Information Systems Inc, the largest self-service solutions provider in North America, for US$105 million in August last year.
The purchase of Portwell makes Posiflex the nation’s third-largest industrial computer company in terms of revenue, tracking Advantech Co (研華) and Ennoconn Corp (樺漢).
“Following the transaction, Posiflex will grow to a company with NT$10 billion a year in revenue. The expansion will also help the company enhance its manufacturing, material procurement and research and development capabilities,” company spokesperson Brenda Yang (楊素美) said during a media briefing yesterday.
Leveraging Portwell’s technological abilities, Posiflex could gain exposure to a bigger market valued at US$16 billion a year, triple the size of its current market, Yang said.
The company is targeting online-to-offline (O2O) and Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure construction businesses as future growth drivers, Yang said.
Posiflex hopes to see its O2O solutions adopted in retail, logistics, gaming, entertainment and digital finance, as well as healthcare, Yang said.
O2O commerce is a new business strategy in which retailers draw potential customers from online channels to physical stores.
The Portwell deal should help Posiflex gain a stronger foothold in the world’s industrial computer and IoT markets, Yang said.
Upon completion of the acquisition, Portwell is to become a fully-owned subsidiary of Posiflex, Yang said, adding that all managers and employees are to retain their jobs.
To finance the acquisition, Posiflex yesterday said it plans to raise NT$4.81 billion by selling special shares to a foreign company closely linked to Temasek Holdings Private Ltd, Singapore’s state-owned holding company.
The foreign company is to hold a 27-percent share of Posiflex following the share offering.
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