Dover announces plans to acquire Markem

Markem is newest edition to Dover's group of automatic ID companies

-- Modern Materials Handling, 8/16/2006

Dover Corp., a $6 billion manufacturer of industrial equipment, announced today its plans to acquire Markem Corp., a New Hampshire-based maker of bar code printers and other product identification equipment. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Markem will operate as an independent company within the Dover Technologies division of Dover Corp., and will retain its name, its management team and its headquarters in Keene, N.H.

Dover consists of over 50 companies, including several (such as Datamax and IMAJE) in the automatic identification industry. In May, Dover announced its acquisition of O'Neil Product Development, a maker of portable printers.

"Markem is a clear leader in the product ID space with a variety of advanced technology solutions for product marking," says Dave Van Loan, president of Dover Technologies, adding that Markem recently released hardware and software for the growing RFID market. "We believe the Markem team will continue to find new opportunities to leverage its technology into other new applications, further strengthening and diversifying the offerings of Dover’s Product ID group."

"It was evident that Markem would integrate well with Dover from a business perspective," says Jeffrey Miller, president of Markem, which has been a family-owned company for almost 100 years. "It was equally important that Dover encourages and supports Markem in maintaining its core values and collaborative culture as well as our commitment to community."