The French payment terminal maker Ingenico Group has agreed to acquire the Sagem Securite unit of the French manufacturing conglomerate Safran Group.
The acquisition of Sagem, a maker of point of sale terminals, would be neutral to earnings next year, lift results by 5% to 10% in 2009, and provide a significant boost after that, Ingenico said Monday.
It expects to convene a shareholders meeting in the second half of March to vote on the deal.
Ingenico, which generated $743 million of revenue last year, said that figure would have been $947 million if Sagem had been included.
Ingenico and Safran, whose main business is in the aerospace industry, disclosed in July that they were discussing a deal.
Gil B. Luria, an analyst at Wedbush Morgan Securities, said buying Sagem Securite would heighten Ingenico's global rivalry with VeriFone Holdings Inc., currently the largest maker of point of sale systems.
"Ingenico just one-upped them and bought the Sagem unit and now they're the biggest," Mr. Luria said.
