Norkom in US$36.5m acquisition of US firm


31 Jul 2007

Irish financial fraud detection player Norkom Technologies has signed a binding agreement to acquire a US-based risk and compliance software company called Digital Harbor for US$36.5m.

Virginia-based Digital Harbor develops technologies for the defence intelligence community, providing composite views of intelligence data and activity across a variety of systems.

It primarily focuses on providing integrated risk and compliance solutions to the financial services industry, which accounted for more than 80pc of its un-audited revenues in the trailing 12 months ended 30 June 2007.

Dublin and AIM-listed Norkom says the acquisition will increase its portfolio of sophisticated financial crime prevention and compliance and will enable Norkom to deliver leading, end-to-end, enterprise-wide solutions to leading financial services institutions worldwide.

“In Digital Harbor we have found an excellent business, with a great team and an impressive client base, which will contribute to the future growth of Norkom, particularly in the US market,” explained Paul Kerley, chief executive of Norkom.

“Digital Harbor’s strength in enterprise case management and visualisation combined with Norkom’s existing enterprise investigation management, detection analytics, workflow and process automation will significantly enhance Norkom’s ability to deliver the full spectrum of an enterprise financial crime prevention and compliance solution to the market.

“The acquisition consolidates Norkom’s position as a leading global provider of financial crime prevention and compliance software solutions,” Kerley added.

Digital Harbor’s offerings include solutions for integrated fraud case management, anti-money laundering, know your customer (KYC) and risk management.

The company has an established client base of leading financial services institutions, which include a number of top 10 US banks and top 20 global banks and the acquisition will further expand Norkom’s client base of top-tier financial institutions.

Digital Harbor also has important partner relationships with IBM and eFunds, which Norkom believes will serve as important sales channels in accelerating its growth, complementing the strength of its direct sales channel and further extending Norkom’s global reach.

Norkom, which recently reported revenues of €25m, has achieved average annual revenue growth rates of 35pc-plus since 2003 primarily through executing a direct sales model. These new partner relationships with IBM and eFunds will help underpin Norkom’s growth profile moving forward, the company said.

By John Kennedy