Harland Infuses Cash Into MitekSystems

ATLANTA - (03/03/05) -- John H. Harland Co. said it hasinvested $1.5 million into Mitek Systems Inc. in exchange for a 15%stake in the financially ailing maker of image and recognitionsoftware. Under the deal, Harland has agreed to purchase up to 2.1million shares of unissued stock for $1.5 million, or 70 cents ashare, and will also receive warrants to buy another 321,000 sharesat the same price. The cash infusion will allow Mitek to go forwardwith its partnership with Harland to introduce self-authenticatingchecks for preventing check fraud. Harland plans to validate theauthenticity of the check owner's signature and the physical checkdocument using Mitek's image processing, data encoding andencryption, and validation software.