MCKINNEY, Texas -- Diebold has completed its acquisition of Global Election Systems, a Canadian manufacturer of electronic voting kiosks.
Following the acquisition, Global Election will be a wholly-owned Diebold subsidiary. Pursuant to the acquisition agreement, each Global Election common share will be exchanged for $0.227 and 0.02421 Diebold common shares. Global's shares will be delisted from the Toronto and American Stock Exchanges promptly following the closing.
The cash and stock deal was valued at $26 million. Diebold had already provided Global with $5 million in financing and is producing more than 500 AccuVote-TS touch screen voting terminals for Global under a contract manufacturing agreement.
The original agreement, announced last June, called for a stock-for-stock transaction valued at $1.50 per common share of Global Election Systems, but Diebold revised the offer in August, agreeing to pay a combination of cash (20 percent) and stock (80 percent) valued at $1.135 per common share of Global.
"This acquisition will provide voters nationwide with a powerful electronic voting solution that combines Diebold's core expertise in ATMs and security solutions with Global Election's vast knowledge of the U.S. elections industry," said Thomas W. Swidarski, Diebold's vice-president of Strategic Development and Global Marketing.
According to Diebold, its entry into the U.S. electronic voting machine market could generate $1.5 to $2 billion in hardware revenue during the next four to five years. Recently, the State of Maryland's Elections Board endorsed a contract with Global valued at $17 million for more than 4,600 electronic touch screen machines and related service.
Last year, Diebold's Brazilian subsidiary, Procomp, supplied the world's largest nationwide voting system, used by 109 million voters, during elections in Brazil. Procomp provided the Brazilian government with more than 180,000 voting terminals, accessories, software, installation, training, logistics and support.
