Ultra Acquires Cyber Equipment Company

Ultra announces that it has acquired Zu Industries Inc. ("Zu") for a cash consideration of $76.6m.

Zu specialises in the provision of equipment for cyber surveillance systems. Based in Doral, near Miami, Florida, Zu employs over 20 staff. As part of the transaction, Ultra has also acquired the membership interests of an associated business named Bushido LLC.

Systems from Zu are built primarily from two proprietary software products that operate on commercial-off-the-shelf hardware:

• ISIS® - Integrated Surveillance & Intelligence System: Zu's proprietary ISIS product processes, stores, filters and retrieves large amounts of communications data, including voice, text, e-mail and metadata from mobile, fixed line and broadband networks.
• VPA - Voice Print Analysis: a voice biometric technology integrated with ISIS to facilitate identification of conversations of interest based on a match of voice samples against a large database of audio files.

Zu's solutions are built through the integration of proprietary products with complementary third party hardware and software including: portable collection tools; mobile devicetracking; asset tracking and spectrum control devices used to suppress radio frequencies. Bushido supplies a range of specialist satellite communications dishes and equipment.

The acquisition of Zu will be financed using Ultra's existing facilities and is expected to be earnings-enhancing in 2012 before amortisation of intangibles. Zu is a bolt-in acquisition to ProLogic, within Ultra's Information & Power Systems division. ProLogic will be the route for the exploitation of Zu's capabilities in international markets.

Rakesh Sharma, Chief Executive of Ultra, commented:

"I am very pleased that we have been able to bring Zu into the Group as part of ProLogic. There are significant synergies between the capabilities of Zu's cyber surveillance equipment, SOTECH's systems capabilities and ProLogic's range of cryptologic solutions."