Basler sells Optical Media Business

Basler AG, one of the leading companies in the Vision Technology sector worldwide, is pleased to announce that it has sold the intellectual property and all assets associated with the Optical Media business of Basler AG as of December 07, 2009 to Xiris Automation of Ontario, Canada.

Effective immediately, Xiris will assume all aspects of Sales, Marketing, R&D, Production and Service of the Basler "R" Ident Code Reader and "L" Print Inspection Product Lines as well as the Sales of Service and Spare Parts of the "S" Scanner Product line.

This transaction is congruent with Basler's previously communicated desire to follow a strategic path focusing on larger, growing markets. This is a bittersweet transaction for Basler as the Optical Media business was the origin of Basler over 20 years ago and the largest business segment for Basler for many years. However, due to the global saturation of CD and DVD manufacturing along with the smaller and slower penetration of Blu-Ray format discs, capital investments in the optical disc industry have been decreasing for several years. As a result Basler revenue has been decreasing in the optical media sector to a relatively insignificant level in recent years while still requiring a disproportionate amount of attention and complexity.

Discarding this business allows Basler to reduce complexity and focus on the business with cameras for Industrial and Security Use and with Surface Inspection systems for the LCD- and the Solar Industry.

Basler Vision Technologies is a worldwide leading producer of vision technology, the technology on which machine vision is based. The company develops, produces and distributes digital cameras for applications in industry, medicine, traffic, and video surveillance, and Surface Inspection for the flat panel, solar and rubber/elastomer industries.

Xiris Automation Inc. makes "machines that can see" quality defects in manufactured goods. The camera-based systems include sophisticated optics, electronics and software for Quality Control inspection, Product Recognition and Traceability. Xiris develops state of the art technology for integration into machine vision systems, which are designed, built and serviced for a global client base from facilities in Canada, Germany, India and Taiwan.