American Bank Note Holographics Inc., the Robbinsville, N.J., provider of payment card security stripes, has agreed to sell itself to the Milpitas, Calif., networking hardware provider JDS Uniphase Corp.
JDS Uniphase announced the $138 million cash and stock deal Tuesday, and said that American Bank Note's products would fit into its optical security products.
American Bank Note makes holographic decals used on the front of many issuers' credit and debit cards and holographic magnetic stripes that are carried on the backs of some cards.
Unlike the traditional, black magnetic stripes, its Holomag stripe features card companies' logos.
The company suffered a major setback in 2006 when some merchants reported that they had experienced problems authorizing transactions on cards with Holomag stripes.
American Bank Note found that the stripes could store static electricity, which would, in rare cases, interfere with the transaction authorization process. Visa Inc., which had introduced cards with the Holomag stripe in January 2006, said two months later that it would revert to the standard magnetic stripe.
The deal is expected to close in the first quarter, after which American Bank Note will become part of JDS Uniphase's advanced optical technologies unit.
"As the battle against counterfeiters becomes increasingly relevant on a global scale, brand owners are heavily investing in overt and covert security solutions," Roy Bie, a JDS Uniphase senior vice president and the general manager of the advanced optical technologies unit, said in a press release. American Bank Note's technology will help it "supply comprehensive security solutions to our customers in the fast-growing brand security market."
