NEC acquires UK-Based Northgate Public Services for £475m

Move set to accelerate the expansion of NECs's international safety business

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Unified Communications

Published: January 10, 2018

Ian Taylor Editor

Ian Taylor

Editor

NEC Corporation have just announced their £475m acquisition of UK-based IT services company Northgate Public Services Limited (NPS), as part of the expansion of its international safety business.

Founded in 1969, Northgate Public Services develops software and services for the public sector and employs approximately 1,400 software engineers throughout the UK and India.

NEC acquires UK-Based Northgate Public Services for £475m in the UK body
The acquisition and merging of technologies signals a promising new development for crime enforcement.

NPS works closely with the British police and government organisations to deploy its business platform across a broad client base that includes local police forces, tax collection offices, social security offices and housing authorities.

Moreover, their technology has helped the NHS to screen eight million babies for hearing loss, enabled 150 housing providers to manage their two million homes more efficiently and made it possible for 13 police forces to increase information sharing on victims and offenders to improve detection rates and cut crime.

Similarly, NEC’s international safety business has also helped combat crime by through the utilisation of some of the world’s most accurate biometrics technologies, including face recognition and fingerprint recognition technologies, and by providing identification systems to more than 30% of state police forces in the USA.

Over the years, NEC have provided more than 700 systems in over 70 countries around the world, mainly in areas such as identification and immigration control, and have contributed enormously to the realisation of safer and more secure society.

As we progress forward into a future where technology is continuously evolving, NEC aims to invest heavily in artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly detect fraudulent requests or applications across its public institutions client base and will seek to provide innovative solutions that create social value.

In the UK in particular, NEC sees significant opportunity related to the government’s promotion of a digital transformation focused on administrative service improvement and cost reduction through visualisation of administrative costs and bringing services online.

Commenting on the acquisition, Takashi Niino, President and CEO, NEC Corporation, states:

“We are proud to have Northgate Public Services, one of the UK’s leading technology companies, joining the NEC Group. 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.”

Stephen Callaghan, CEO, Northgate Public Services, then also gave his comments on the acquisition and what it means for the company:

“This is a very exciting time to be part of Northgate Public Services. Our colleagues and leadership team have worked incredibly hard over the past two years to get the Company into great shape operationally and financially, with the result that NPS is a highly attractive asset to NEC. This transaction represents a step-change in our ability to serve our clients.

“Combined with NEC’s business, we will now be able to offer a wider suite of services and software to our existing client base, whilst also expanding in new geographies and technology sectors. I’d like to stress that we see this as simply the beginning of our next phase of development. The increased financial strength, technical capability and market access support NEC provides will allow us to accelerate our growth plans considerably and I am enthusiastic about our future prospects.”

The acquisition is set to be completed by the end of January.

 

Artificial IntelligenceDigital TransformationMergers and AcquisitionsPublic Sector

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