Hexagon acquires geospatial enterprise software company

Hexagon has entered into an agreement to acquire all outstanding shares of the Belgian software company IONIC Software as well as all the shares of the related American company IONIC Enterprise, together referred to as IONIC (www.ionicsoft.com).

IONIC was founded in 1999 and has built up extensive expertise in the development of Java components to create applications for geospatially enabled service oriented architectures. IONIC develops software products to securely catalog and serve geospatial information on the Internet. IONIC offers fully interoperable, enterprise-class products for the publishing, discovery, access, integration, and application of spatial data in support of core business functions.

IONIC sales in 2007 are estimated to approximately 10 MEUR. The company has in recent years shown an above market growth rate and is expected to grow with more than 20 per cent a year. The European company is headquartered in Liege, Belgium and operations in the USA are run out of Alexandria, Virginia. IONIC employs 44 people.

"The acquisition of IONIC underlines Hexagon's growth strategy and commitment to the enterprise geospatial market. IONIC will complement and add to Hexagon's increasing software offerings for enterprise and distributed computing. The acquisition will accelerate the ongoing efforts to transition the existing Hexagon desktop image handling and processing applications to web enabled and service oriented image management, processing and delivery solutions", says Ola Rollén, CEO and President of Hexagon AB.

IONIC is expected be consolidated as of 1 July 2007 and will immediately contribute to Hexagon's earnings.