Odetics of Anaheim Buys 2 Small Firms

Odetics Inc. said Tuesday that it has purchased two small companies to complement several of its existing businesses.

Odetics acquired K-Systems Inc., a maker of timing products for the defense, electronics and aerospace industries with five employees in El Paso, Tex. It also purchased Infodetics Corp., a document management and control company with 32 employees in Anaheim, said Joel Slutzky, Odetics chairman and chief executive.

Slutzky would not disclose purchase prices for the two acquisitions, except to say the company paid a total of more than $2 million.

Slutzky said the K-Systems unit, which will be renamed the KSI Division, will complement the product line offered by Odetics’ Precision Time Division. The KSI unit will remain in El Paso.

The purchase of Infodetics will reunite Odetics with a former subsidiary that it spun off in November, 1982. Combined with Odetics’ business of making automated videotape library systems for the broadcast industry, the Infodetics acquisition will strengthen Odetics’ position in the information management business, Slutzky said.

Infodetics employees will move from their headquarters on South Claudina Street in Anaheim to Odetics’ headquarters on South Manchester Avenue in Anaheim. No layoffs are expected, Slutzky said.

Slutzky said Odetics focused on developing its robotics product lines between 1982 and 1987 to supplement its division that manufactures tape recorders used in the space shuttle and other spacecraft.