Sofradir buys up Thales, Sagem shares

PARIS – France-based Sofradir SA, a jointly owned subsidiary of Sagem and Thales, announced it has acquired Sagem and Thales’ infrared detector technology development and manufacturing facilities. Financial details remained undisclosed.

With this acquisition, Sofradir said it now hosts the complete portfolio of infrared technologies – the cooled and uncooled IR technologies – and expects to consolidate its leading position in Europe and in the global imaging market.

Under the terms of the agreement, Sagem will transfer to Sofradir the indium antimonide technology. The quantum well infrared photodetector and indium gallium arsenide technologies will be transferred to Sofradir from the GIE III-V Lab, an economic interest group with partners Alcatel Lucent, Thales and research institute CEA.

“With the new technologies, Sofradir along with its subsidiary Ulis will be able to select the technology best adapted to our clients’ applications. We are in a fortified position to offer IR products with more innovation, performance and compactness in order to respond to any IR market need,” Philippe Bensussan, chairman and CEO of Sofradir, said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Sagem and Thales acquired Areva’s 20-percent stake in Sofradir. Safran and Thales then raised their respective stake to 50 percent of Sofradir, compared to 40 percent previously.

Sofradir employs 550 people and generates revenue of about 150 million euros ($196 million). Employees are mostly based at the company’s development and production center in Veurey-Voroize, near Grenoble, France.

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