Network Technology Plc, one of the most highly fancied companies on the Alternative Investment Market, continues to astound, and the company has shamelessly done something that such fledgling businesses are not meant to do, and made an acquisition in the US. Its target is JRL Systems Inc of Austin, Texas and it is paying $4.8m for the company, $1.8m in cash and the rest by way of 1.1m new Network Technology shares, with completion seen for Monday. JRL has been a supportive equity investor in Network Technology from 1992 until its 125,000 British pound investment was bought out by 3i Group Plc when Network Technology restructured in June 1995. Its revenue was $6.8m in the year to September last, up from $5.2m in fiscal 1993. Pre-tax profits were $391,529, and total net assets subject to the transaction are around $3.07m, of which around $2.5m is cash or receivables. JRL makes printer controllers and owns printer languages compatible with PostScript and PCL. It also has ISDN router technology and products that Network Technology plans to use extensively to enable faster Internet connections for its own print servers, since most Internet service providers now provide ISDN access up to 128Kbps.
