EyeDentify to Buy Cardkey

EyeDentify Inc., an Oregon maker of security devices that identify people through their retinas, said it will buy Chatsworth-based Cardkey Systems, a division of Fairchild Industries. Terms of the deal, expected to be completed in early August, were not disclosed.

Combined sales of the two companies will be more than $40 million this year, both firms said, although neither would break down the figure.

Malcolm S. Stopps, president of Cardkey, which makes card-based entry systems used in such places as hotels and offices, said no changes in employment are expected. Cardkey employs 200 at its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Chatsworth.

Privately held EyeDentify Inc. of Beaverton, Ore., employs 53.

Cardkey will be managed as a wholly owned subsidiary. The acquisition will be financed through an equity investment by Pacific Telecom Inc., EyeDentify’s majority shareholder.

The merging companies said their move is logical because it matches EyeDentify’s high-technology products with Cardkey’s marketing network.

Fairchild Industries, based in Chantilly, Va., said it is selling Cardkey because the unit is in a specialized segment of the electronic controls market and does not fit in with the firm’s plans to expand in the aerospace business.