EPSON BUYS FIERY FOR $875M

The largest print deal of the year will see Epson buy the world’s biggest rip developer Fiery, for $875m (US$591m), with the acquisition set to complete by December.

When the deal is complete Fiery will continue to operate as an independent provider of digital front ends and workflow solutions for OEM partners. Fiery rips are offered by virtually all digital print systems developers.

Fiery says it will maintain “strict confidentiality” regarding partner data, roadmaps, and product information for its customers.

Fiery says that by joining Epson, it will be better positioned to scale, drive innovation, and continue delivering "cutting-edge" solutions to its customers.

For Epson the deal gives it access to the world’s premier rip developer, as it rapidly expands its range of digital print solutions, which now includes technology for sign and display, labels, textiles, promotional print, merchandise, and micro print.

Yasunori Ogawa, Epson president, said, “We are confident that this agreement will not only drive further growth in our commercial and industrial printing businesses, but also accelerate the digital transformation of the analogue printing market in innovative way."

The company says Fiery’s software, server, and workflow solutions will complement Epson’s strategic vision and hardware leadership to drive growth across a broad range of print devices and applications. Epson is a $13.75bn business with some 75,000 staff.

Fiery owner Siris p/e, which also owns EFI, split Fiery from EFI in January last year, the move coming a year after it spun its software division out as eProductivity Software and sold it to another US private equity fund, Symphony Technology. Siris paid US$1.7bn for EFI when it acquired it five years ago.

Fiery was originally created by legendary print technology developer Efi Arazi, who founded electronic page make-up developer Scitex, in 1968, it was Israel’s first ever high-tech business. He sold it when the Apple Mac appeared, and in 1988 formed EFI, with the Fiery rip as its main product, the rip enabling the major photocopier manufacturers to enter the digital commercial colour print market. Within little more than a decade the rapid uptake of those digital print systems had wiped out A3 offset press manufacturing.