SAFRAN through Sagem Sécurité, its wholly owned subsidiary and a leader in ID solutions based on biometrics, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the biometric business unit within Motorola, which includes its Printrak trademark.

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.

“This acquisition enables Sagem Sécurité 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,” said Jean-Paul Herteman, CEO of SAFRAN.

“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.