NEC acquires UK police software provider Northgate Public Service

Software provider Northgate Public Service (NPS) has been acquired by NEC for £475 million (roughly $655 million), giving NPS access to NEC’s biometric scanning and facial recognition technology, and allowing NEC to pursue significant growth opportunities in the UK and Australia.

NPS provides software to UK police forces and other public services, including the National Health Service (NHS). NEC Japan acquired the company from private equity firm Cinven after failing to reach an agreement on a similar asset, Finance.co.uk reports.

The companies will collaborate to develop safety solutions with their combined technologies, and will use image analysis techniques including face recognition, intrusion detection and suspicious item detection to offer real-time detection of suspicious individuals, according to the announcement.

NEC also sees an opportunity to leverage its AI capabilities to help the UK government implement its strategy to improve administrative service through digitization.

“We are proud to have Northgate Public Services, one of the UK’s leading technology companies, joining the NEC Group,” said Takashi Niino, President and CEO, NEC Corporation. “With this acquisition, NEC aims to support and strengthen NPS’ technologies for police operations, establish new safety solutions based on a common business platform, and to further develop international markets largely focused on countries within the Commonwealth.”
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of January.

Previously reported, the UK government has recently come under fire for delaying the publication of its strategy for police use of facial recognition.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometrics  |  NEC  |  UK