HID Global acquires Bluvision

AUSTIN, Texas—HID Global, a company that specializes in identity solutions, has acquired Bluvision, a Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) provider in the enterprise Internet of Things (IoT) market. The deal closed Dec. 1, and financial terms were not disclosed.

Bluvision will continue to maintain its operations in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and the Bluvision team will report to Marc Bielmann, HID Global's VP and managing director of the Identification Technologies business.

“Bluvision expands HID Global's offerings with BLE products,” Bielmann told Security Systems News. “To be more specific, the addition of Bluvision's products extends HID Global's offerings from high-end, passive RFID components (LF/HF/UHF) to active BLE.” He added that Bluzone from Bluvision delivers cloud services that are well aligned with HID Global's data services strategy.

Stefan Widing, president and CEO of HID Global, said in the announcement, “We are extending our lead in BLE-based IoT solutions that we created when we launched our mobile access solution two years ago. With our combined solutions and technologies, our customers' ability to manage assets and people within buildings will increase significantly.”

Bielmann added that with the Bluvision acquisition, “HID's strategy is to expand our real-time asset tracking capabilities, boost HID's ability to address the IoT market with Bluetooth offerings, and essentially extend HID's cloud services for access control and related applications.”

Bluvision is a complete IoT ecosystem provider, offering real-time location system technology, presence and proximity-based location capabilities and condition monitoring solutions as well as cloud infrastructure, gateways, beacons and software as a service (SaaS).

“Becoming part of HID Global, Bluvision will have the support and expertise to continue driving technology to the next level in the Internet of Things space for years to come and speed up our cycles of innovation,” Jimmy Buchheim, the head of Bluvision, said in the announcement.

He continued, “We share a common vision with HID Global to deliver an unparalleled combination of accuracy, convenience, security and scalability that enables our customers to determine the specific location and condition of assets and people in real time in ways that were previously not possible.”

An ASSA ABLOY Group brand, HID Global's markets include physical and logical access control, including strong authentication and credential management; card printing and personalization; visitor management systems; highly secure government and citizen ID; and identification RFID technologies used in animal ID and industry and logistics applications.