AuthenTec and UPEK Announce Merger

On Independence Day this year I said that UPEK "has now given up on" its efforts to merge with Authen Tec.

Authen Tec is Florida based, UPEK is a California company. They are both in the biometric identification market -- fingerprint recognition doodads and stuff.

But the merger will go forward. A friendly deal has been reached. This will be accomplished as an Authen Tec purchase of UPEK rather than, as once expected, the other way around.

The two firms have of late been adversaries in IP litigation. In May of this year, the Northern District for the District Court of California, in San Jose, issued this procedural ruling in that case. I haven't kept up with it since, but imagine that the new combined company won't continue suing itself.