Lasercard's unique portfolio of card products, services, and solutions for complex ID management are used by 400 customers in 44 nations. The company's strength is in its propriety knowhow and highly differentiated secure credential technologies used for citizen identification, border security, government service delivery, and facility access applications.

Lasercard is based in California and also has offices in Rastede and Ratingen in Germany, employs 182 people and had a turnover of USD 59 M for 2009.

The offered price amounts to approximately USD 80 M with an offered share price of USD 6.25 per share, net to the seller in cash without interest, representing a premium of approximately 42 percent over Lasercard's average closing share price during the past 20 trading days ended December 17, 2010.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Assa Abloy AB will commence a tender offer to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Lasercard common stock. The offer was to commence on December 22, 2010 and will expire at the end of the day on Friday, January 21, 2011, unless extended in accordance with the terms of the merger agreement and the applicable rules and regulations of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

The tender offer will be conditioned upon, among other things, greater than fifty percent of Lasercard's outstanding shares being tendered in the offer based on the number of shares outstanding, including certain options. The transaction is expected to be completed during the first quarter of 2011.

"I am very happy to welcome Lasercard to the Assa Abloy Group. Lasercard is one important step in a rapidly converging market and will give us valuable knowledge, capabilities and growth opportunities" said Johan Molin, President and CEO of Assa Abloy.

"I welcome Lasercard and its employees to our Group. Together with HID, Fargo and recently acquired Actividentity, this acquisition creates a comprehensive set of secure credentialing capabilities for government issued ID programmes and a unique platform of technology and knowhow for future development of eGovernment solutions" said Denis Hébert, Executive Vice President Assa Abloy and Head of business unit HID Global.

The acquisition is estimated to be neutral to earnings per share in 2011.