Digital pen and paper technology company The Anoto Group has announced that it is to buy 51 per cent of the shares of Destiny Wireless, a mobile data capture company. 

The companies are already close partners, as Destiny Wireless supplies more than 600 solutions that use Anotos technology to 250 customers, who process more than 500,000 digital forms every month. 

This includes digital pen data, photographic images, and GPS co-ordinates, with converted electronic output transmitted back to customers in close to real-time, says Anoto. 

“The acquisition of Destiny brings us closer to the market, granting us an enhanced understanding of our customers and their needs,” says Anotos CEO Torgny Hellström. “The development of digital platforms for mobile data capture based on Anotos technology is currently deployed across a number of smaller, often local, platform providers. This acquisition is the first step in a new strategy that allows Anoto to consolidate existing platforms and achieve efficiency measures that will generate economies of scale. It will afford us excellent opportunities for growth, which is crucial for a company like ours where a substantial part of any increase in sales will affect earnings.”

Anoto will assume immediate responsibility of Destiny, which will be operated “as a separate unit at arms-length”, but will be consolidated into Anotos accounts.

“Our agreement with Anoto means that we will be part of a larger organisation than we are today,” says Edward Belgeonne, CEO and founder of Destiny. “This gives us opportunities to expand and develop in several sectors, and leverage our key strengths and skills in sales and marketing to the B2B mobile data capture market. Although digital pen technology represents a huge opportunity for rapid efficiency improvements, competition is increasing and new digital devices are expanding user choice. Our next-generation platform, due for launch by the end of 2011, will include significant enhancements to our existing Cloud capture platform and will support digital data capture from multiple input devices – although Anoto digital pen and paper technology will remain at the heart of this flexible platform.”

The 51 per cent share carries a price of £1.5m, and will consist of a mix of cash and shares when the deal completes. Anoto has also purchased an option to purchase the remaining 49 per cent of the company by 2014.