Cathy Cheney | Portland Business Journal
FEI CEO Don Kania said the purchase of VSG will expand his firm’s visualization capabilities.
FEI Co. announced Wednesday that it has expanded its imaging and visualization capabilities with the acquisition of Visualization Sciences Group for $55 million.
VSG of Bordeaux, France, makes 3D visualization software products and tools for customers in the oil and gas, geosciences, mining, life sciences, materials sciences and other industries. The company employs 88 and through the end of fiscal year in June had annual sales of $19 million.
Hillsboro-based FEI (NASDAQ: FEIC) makes electron microscopes.
“(VSG’s) products and development capabilities fit well with all of our target markets, especially in our higher-growth Natural Resources and Life Sciences businesses,” said FEI CEO Don Kania in a statement. “Our customers are expressing an increasing demand for analysis of the data our imaging systems create. At the same time, FEI intends to continue to build upon VSG’s growing software business.”
The deal comes about a month after FEI paid $12 million to buy certain assets of its Korean sales and service agent AP Tech.
FEI reported record revenue in its most-recently closed quarter, growing sales by 10.5 percent to $217.6 million. That built on what Kania called a “transformational” 2011.
FEI’s 2011 sales reached $826.4 million — up 30 percent from a year earlier and the company’s profits nearly doubled, rising from $53.5 million, or $1.34 per share, to $103.6 million, or $2.51 per share.