Gerber acquires laser projection technology firm Virtek Vision

Gerber Scientific Inc. (South Windsor, Conn.) announced Oct. 21 that its wholly owned Canadian subsidiary Gerber Scientific International Ltd. has taken up 29,369,010 common shares, or about 88 percent of the outstanding common stock, of Virtek Vision International Inc. (Waterloo, Ontario, Canada) at a price of $1.05 (Canadian) cash per common share. Gerber’s offer topped a competing, unsolicited bid from Jaguar Financial Corp. (Toronto, Canada).

Virtek Vision will operate as part of plotter-based cutting table manufacturer Gerber Technology (Tolland, Conn.), one of four business groups that operate under Gerber Scientific. Peter Richter, Virtek’s VP of imaging and templating, says, “We are very excited to be joining the Gerber group of companies. The acquisition strengthens our product innovations for aerospace, naval, wind energy and many other fields for better customer solutions.” Virtek is a leading provider of high-value industrial laser solutions, serving the needs of the global manufacturing sector. Gerber Technology claims to provide product lifecycle management (PLM), CAD and CAM automation solutions to more companies than any other supplier.  The company’s products are expected to find complementary application, particularly in the area of cutting, kitting and placement of unimpregnated fabrics and prepregged ply materials in composites molding operations.