JANUARY 8, 2008--Adept Technology (Livermore, CA, USA), a provider of intelligent vision-guided robotics and global robotics services, has acquired Cerebellum Automation SAS, a leader in specialized OEM robotics and motion-control solutions for the medical and packaging industries. Privately held Cerebellum Automation is located in Chavanod, France, near Geneva Switzerland, and close to key industrial centers in France, Switzerland, and Italy.
Adept has agreed to purchase all outstanding shares of Cerebellum for a total purchase price of up to $1.2 million. Payment will be made in the form of cash and shares paid over a two-year period. To date, an initial cash payment of $350,000 has been made. In January 2008, Adept will make an additional payment of $65,000 in cash to be held in escrow for one year and released on the first anniversary of the acquisition, at which time there will also be a contingent payment of up to $335,000 in Adept common stock, if certain employee retention provisions are met. A final payment of $65,000 in cash will be made two years from the date of acquisition, as well as a contingent payment of up to $385,000 in Adept common stock, provided certain employee retention provisions are met. Additionally, Cerebellum's principle executives, who are founders of the acquired company, are eligible to receive bonus payments of up to €312,000 based on the sales performance of certain Cerebellum products over the next two years.
Cerebellum Automation, founded in 2004, has a growing base of OEM, end-user, and system-integrator customers in France and Western Europe. The company provides a number of products and services, most notably CIDE, an intuitive robotic and motion-control application development suite, and ApproFlex, a feeding and small-part-handling system designed for end-user customers. Both CIDE and ApproFlex provide incremental value-added revenue potential to Adept's product line and expand the market for Adept's MotionBlox line of single and multiaxis controllers.
"The acquisition of Cerebellum Automation is both complementary and additive to Adept, augmenting our capabilities in key vertical and geographic markets," said Robert Bucher, chief executive officer of Adept. "Cerebellum complements our strong position in Germany and gives us a greatly expanded footprint in the French automation market, which is the third largest in Europe. Their expert staff also brings proven experience in developing automation solutions for the medical and packaging markets, which we will leverage worldwide."
Adept plans to rapidly integrate Cerebellum's ten employees into its French office and anticipates the resulting incremental operating costs will be approximately $230,000 per quarter. The company expects the acquisition will be immediately accretive to revenue and anticipates continued growth in Cerebellum product sales. Adept further expects the acquisition will be accretive to operations and cash flow within two years.
Founded in 1983, Adept Technology is the largest US-based manufacturer of industrial robots. More information is available at www.adept.com.