Printer Maker Printronix Selling for $108M

Orange County Business Journal, Oct 8-Oct 14, 2007

Irvine-based Printronix Inc., a maker of industrial printers, is being bought for $108 million by San Francisco-based private equity firm Vector Capital.

The deal will take Printronix, with a recent market value of about $100 million, private.

Vector Capital is offering 18% more for Printronix than what the company was trading at before the deal.

Longtime Chief Executive Robert Kleist and other executives are set to keep running Printronix. Kleist cofounded the company in 1974.

Kleist, Printronix's largest shareholder, and other executives are expected to own about 10% of the company after the deal closes.

Printronix makes printers for warehouses, factories and other uses. In recent years, it's pushed printers for producing radio frequency identification tags, high-tech barcodes used to track shipments.

The company has had choppy results as of late, easily exceeding expectations in the December quarter and then coming in below Wall Street's views for the March quarter.

Printronix had a mixed showing for the June quarter, with revenue coming in lower and profits coming in higher.

Vector Capital buys technology companies and works with "management to navigate companies through transitions in their business," according to its Web site.

It also owns parts of Canadian software maker Corel Corp. and Seattle's RealNetworks Inc., and a majority of Maryland's SafeNet Inc. and New York's Register.com Inc.