Diebold sells Premier Election Solutions for $5 million

Thursday, 03 September 2009 10:20

CantonRep.com staff report

GREEN —
Diebold has sold its controversial U.S. election systems business to competitor Election Systems & Software, a leading company in the election systems industry.

The sale closed Wednesday and consists primarily of Diebold’s Allen, Texas-based subsidiary, Premier Election Solutions.

Diebold has agreed to sell the business for $5 million in cash, plus payments representing 70 percent of any cash collected on outstanding accounts that were receivable as of Aug. 31.

Diebold expects to recognize a pre-tax loss in the range of $45 million to $55 million as a result of the transaction.  The pre-tax loss includes the assets and liabilities of the business, certain retained legal liabilities, and other transaction costs.

Excluding the impact of the sale, Diebold’s full-year earnings per share outlook for 2009 remains unchanged.

Diebold bought Global Election Systems for about $31 million in January 2002. The company has endured numerous lawsuits and problems with requirements that varied by state.

Diebold has been looking to sell the touch-screen and optical scan voting, and electronic voter registration business since early 2006.

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