HID Global announced on Wednesday that it has acquired Omni-ID, a manufacturer of RFID tags and industrial IoT hardware devices for passive and active tagging, tracking, monitoring and alerting applications. In a statement, HID said that the acquisition will extend its market leadership in RFID technology and also strengthen its presence in India and China.
“I am very pleased to welcome Omni-ID into the ASSA ABLOY Group and HID,” said Björn Lidefelt, EVP and Head of HID Global. “Omni-ID is a strategic technological addition to HID and reinforces our current RFID and IoT offering. Expanding our sales and manufacturing footprint in India and in China with Omni-ID will further enhance HID’s ability to serve customers locally, while extending our industrial IoT technology into emerging markets.”
Omni-ID provides passive, rugged long-range RAIN RFID ultra-high frequency (UHF) tags and labels in several form factors for an array of identification requirements. The company focuses on organizations in the industrial, oil & gas, transportation and other markets seeking rugged UHF RFID solutions for use in challenging environmental conditions (high heat, wind, dirt, explosive and other difficult scenarios).
Additionally, Omni-ID brings passive UHF temperature sensing to the HID identification portfolio and fortifies the company’s expertise and capabilities in custom RFID design and personalization.
Active tags and solutions from Omni-ID are implemented with embedded technologies and protocols such as Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), LoRaWAN, GPS, Quuppa and Wirepas, which complement the HID Location Services offerings.
“The acquisition of Omni-ID supports HID’s Identification Technologies business strategy to power trusted identities by optimizing our portfolio with a broader range of value-added RAIN RFID UHF components, active identification devices and more ways to deliver highly customized, feature-rich solutions to customers as a leading component supplier for RFID use cases and IoT applications,” said Marc Bielmann, SVP and Head of Identification Technologies with HID Global.”
Omni-ID adds engineers and key staff with over 15 years of RFID expertise to the HID team. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Rochester, N.Y., with approximately 170 employees worldwide. It is now a business unit within HID’s Identification Technologies Business Area, which is led by Marc Bielmann.