Pay By Touch, the leading provider of biometric authentication, personalized rewards and payment solutions, today announced that it has closed an asset purchase agreement to acquire nearly 1,000 merchant accounts from the merchant portfolio held by Camelot Systems, Inc., dba Paynet Transaction Services, a leading Independent Sales Organization (ISO) based in Concord, Calif.The Pay By Touch purchase of Paynet’s merchant portfolio extends its market reach to approximately 1,000 new merchants, ranging from restaurants and apparel shops to auto body shops. Included in this diverse portfolio of companies are more than 50 NCAA sporting venues, the Dave Matthews Band and the Arcese, Furst and Associates (AFA) client roster, including David Yurman, Polo Warehouse, and Sean John Outlets.

Paynet’s merchants are ideal candidates to adopt Pay By Touch’s secure and cost effective biometric payment and personalized rewards solutions which give small to mid-sized businesses a clear competitive advantage.

“Acquiring Paynet’s portfolio will extend our payment services to many of the top tier celebrity and specialty merchants consumers love,” said John Rogers, founder, chairman, and CEO of Pay By Touch. “We look forward to providing these merchants with access to the entire suite of Pay By Touch products, which are typically available only to larger retailers.”

De La Rue Smurfit is supplying a new ePassport containing a highly secure 72kB chip to the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs. The Irish Government issued the first books on 16 October 2006, in advance of the United States visa waiver programme deadline of 26 October 2006. De La Rue Smurfit supplied around 700,000 Irish Passports last year. The new document is fully compliant with the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) 9303 standard.

The ePassport features a contactless 72 kB chip which stores the bearer’s biographical details, as they appear on the details page of the passport, and a digital image of the bearer. De La Rue produces 34 and 66 page books for the Irish Government in secure, controlled and audited conditions. They are manufactured in one of De La Rue’s high-technology ePassport production sites within the European Union. The confidentiality and integrity of the documents are secured during the Department of Foreign Affairs’ personalisation process. Layered technologies including digital signatures, Basic Access Control (BAC) to protect against electronic eavesdropping and data ‘skimming’ of the chip, and Active Authentication to prevent cloning are employed in the ePassport.

De La Rue is also responsible for producing the Irish emergency passport issued by the Government to citizens who have urgent travel requirements but do not have time to receive a standard passport through the usual application process. Emergency passports are personalised at the three Passport Offices in Ireland and more than 60 Irish Diplomatic and Consular Missions overseas. The data page is secured by De La Rue’s MLIS™ solution, which is used by some 25 issuing authorities worldwide and is fully compliant with ICAO 9303.

Commenting on the contract, Paul Wilson, Managing Director of De La Rue Identity Systems said:

“De La Rue has been involved in setting the future direction of ePassport developments with international standards bodies and has focused on the performance, security and readability of its solution. Extensive testing ensures that De La Rue’s ePassport exceeds industry standards.”

An amusing satire suggesting a brand new form of biometric recognition.  Here are a few key excerpts:

“Rectal scanning is almost impossible to fake”

“The probe vibrates and expands if it detects an invalid rectal signature.”

“Managers at Lockheed have suggested employees wear miniskirts or kilts to speed up the process.”

Read the whole thing here.

L-1 Identity Solutions has agreed to acquire biometric identification and authentication company ComnetiX for $12.5m cash.

ComnetiX offers fingerprint solutions to the Canadian market, and conducts thousands of criminal background checks per year.

Founded in 1980, ComnetiX has helped form standard protocol for eletronic transmission of fingerprints.   Its customers include Toronto Police Services, Criminal Intelligence Services Canada, New York Criminal Justice Services Department, Boston Police Department and others.

Source - WT

Pacific Biometrics, Inc released its financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2007, ended September 30, 2006. Revenues for the first quarter increased 42% to $2,604,884 from $1,834,442 for the comparable period last year. Operating income for the first quarter of 2007 was reduced by a significant stock-based compensation expense of $545,558 relating to restricted shares and stock options granted during the quarter, and resulted in a net operating loss of $95,686 compared with net operating income of $50,155 for the same period last year. Total net loss for the first fiscal quarter was $203,028, or $0.01 per share, compared with a total net loss of $180,166, or $0.01 per share, for the same period during fiscal 2006. Net cash flow from operations has improved significantly to a positive $633,377 for the first fiscal quarter, compared to a negative $307,282 for the same period last year. Cash and cash equivalents balance has also improved to $5,944,456 for the first fiscal quarter, compared to $652,342 for the same period last year.

“We have reported an excellent start to fiscal 2007 with record first quarter revenues,” commented Ron Helm, Pacific Biometrics’ President and Chief Executive Officer. “We are experiencing increased demand for our specialty laboratory services and greater volume in the size and number of clinical trials we are working on. In addition to our core client base, we are receiving business from new entities that we have never worked with before. This reflects our successful increase in new business development efforts, and recognition as a leading provider of high-quality laboratory services in the areas of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and bone and joint disease.”

Mr. Helm concluded, “Although we reported a net loss of $0.01 per share for the quarter, the Company generated positive EBITDA, as well as gross profit of $1.3 million. The net loss was attributable to a significant charge relating to restricted shares and stock options. Excluding this stock-based compensation expense, we would have reported a profit of $342,530, or $0.02 per share. That said, operationally our Company continues to perform well. Cash flow from operations and cash balances have improved as a result. We look forward to fiscal 2007, as our primary business strategy will be to continue to focus on providing high quality specialty central laboratory services, while going forward in growing our business through increased business development efforts.”

For additional information, see Pacific Biometrics’ Annual Report filed with the SEC on Form 10-KSB for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2006 and the quarterly report filed with the SEC on Form 10-QSB for the fiscal quarter ended September 30, 2006.