Eyeing EMEA, BIO-key Makes Its Next Big Acquisition

BIO-key is looking to extend its reach in the EMEA regions through a major new acquisition: the company has revealed that it has reached a definitive agreement to buy Swivel Secure Europe (SSE).

Founded in 2001, Swivel Secure has become a major multi-factor authentication solutions vendor in the ensuing decades and now serves a client base spanning 54 countries. It has major names in its client roster, including the Associated Press, the NHS, and the U.S. Army; and it has offices in the UK, Ireland, the EMEA regions, the UAE, APAC, and the United States.

As for its technological offerings, SSE is best known for AuthControl Sentry, its flagship MFA security platform for logical access control. The platform supports multiple authentication factors, but at its core is PINsafe, an innovative one-time passcode system in which each user is issued a unique PIN that essentially acts as a key to decode randomly generated OTPs.

Through the acquisition, BIO-key will become the exclusive distributor of SSE solutions in the EMEA regions, encompassing over 300 existing customer relationships. Those customers will gain access to BIO-key’s own authentication offerings, including its PortalGuard Single Sign-On system and its biometric authentications solutions.

“Swivel Secure Europe and its talented team have established a deep network of partners and customers across Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and this acquisition significantly strengthens BIO-key’s presence in those regions,” explained BIO-key CEO and Chairman Michael DePasquale.

For BIO-key, the acquisition’s importance could ultimately become comparable to the company’s deal to purchase PistolStar in 2020. That move brought PortalGuard into BIO-key’s portfolio, and PortalGuard has helped to draw numerous new clients to BIO-key in the ensuing years, with DePasquale characterizing it as a driver of the company’s core business in a corporate update last fall.

BIO-key expects its acquisition of SSE to close this month and to be accretive to BIO-key’s earnings (excluding costs associated with the purchase), noting in its announcement that SSE had generated $3.1 million in revenue and $578,000 in operating income in 2021, on a preliminary unaudited basis.

Going forward, SSE CEO and sole stockholder Alex Rocha will be responsible for EMEA operations, and will report directly to DePasquale.

–

February 3, 2022 – by Alex Perala