Roper reels in Kodak group and Redlake

Roper Industries (Bogart, GA) has signed purchase agreements with two digital imaging companies--one large and one small—that will bring to six the number of such acquisitions made since 1996 and confirm Roper as a dominant player in the field. The most recent acquisitions are the Motion Analysis Systems Division (MASD; San Diego, CA) of Eastman Kodak and Redlake Imaging (Morgan Hill, CA). The acquisition of the Kodak group brings in a major supplier of high-speed, digital video cameras for applications in the automotive, industrial, and military markets. The purchase price is approximately $51 million and should close in December 1999. Roper is paying $9 million to purchase Redlake, a maker of high-speed digital video cameras sold primarily to the industrial, academic, and military testing markets.—W. Conard Holton