Anoto Announces Partnership with we-inspire GmbH and US Business Expansion

LUND, Sweden, May 14, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Anoto Group AB, world leader in digital writing technology, today announced that it has acquired 25% of we-inspire GmbH, a company specializing in full digital collaboration environments. As part of the agreement, Anoto Group AB will set up a wholly owned subsidiary, we-inspire Inc., based in Los Angeles, California and will sell we-inspire's product in the US market. Anoto Group AB also retains an option to increase its stake in we-inspire GmbH to 51% in 2017. Through the acquisition, Anoto and we-inspire will further develop truly full digital collaborative work environments for corporate and creative use that combines the strengths of the two companies.

we-inspire's solution revolutionizes interactive collaboration processes, by incorporating Anoto's Live writing surface, digital pens and projectors.  The solution enables users to work on large interactive wall surfaces and allows multiple users to interact by using different devices, such as Anoto digital pens, laptops and tablets. Workgroups are able to collaborate and interact by drawing, writing, making notes, import documents, pictures or movies, sketches and even capture analogue content written on paper in real time. Work can be saved locally or in the cloud to be distributed to participants of a meeting. The solution also enables teams to retrieve their previous work and carry on from where they left off in a follow-up meeting. 

The solution is already used by companies including one of the world's largest and most creative toy manufacturer, LEGO Systems A/S, for designing new toys and SKANSKA, world's leading project development and construction group, which is using 70 systems in its new headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, to further enhance collaborative meetings and enrich workspaces. Among other key installations, the we-inspire solution is used by two leading German car manufacturers for R&D and design purposes.

"The we-inspire solution is a natural extension of Anoto's products and ecosystem, and it is an exciting opportunity to expand our business," said Stein Revelsby, CEO of Anoto Group AB. "Together, Anoto and we-inspire can provide a truly unique collaboration tool that can be used across any corporate environment. we-inspire's technology is ideal for R&D departments working with project management and product design, production teams working with LEAN planning or analysing manufacturing processes and the media industry, working on storyboards for movies or TV shows. The technology is suitable for any environment where meetings are held and there is a need to gather teams or groups to generate ideas which boost productivity and creativity."

"The main goal for us was to bridge the gap between traditional and digital work-practices for collaborative work," said Jakob Leitner, CEO of we-inspire GmbH. "We have seen that in many creative spaces, traditional whiteboards and flipcharts are still used because they are incredibly accessible. At the same time they require considerable effort to archive, share and restore information and only offer limited space and visualization capabilities. We have created a solution that combines the intuitiveness and ease of use of such traditional surfaces with the power of computing. By using Anoto pens and surfaces we can create highly precise, seamless interactive walls that span 10 meters and more and supports up to 7 participants work simultaneously on a single application or several different tasks in parallel. With we-inspire, participants can brainstorm and share ideas using an enjoyable environment."

About Anoto Group
Anoto Group AB is a global leader in digital writing solutions, which enables fast and reliable transmission of handwriting into a digital format. Anoto operates worldwide through a global partner network that delivers user-friendly digital writing solutions for efficient capture, transmission, distribution and storage of data. Anoto is currently in use across multiple business segments, e.g. healthcare, pharmaceutical, bank and financial services, transportation and logistics, government and education. The Anoto Group has over 100 employees and is headquartered in Lund (Sweden), with offices in Basingstoke, Guildford and Wetherby (UK), Amsterdam (NL), Boston (US) and Tokyo (Japan). The Anoto share is traded on the Small Cap list of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm under the ticker ANOT. For more information, please visit: www.anoto.com.

Follow Anoto on Twitter at: @Anoto

About we-inspire
we-inspire is an innovative collaboration technology company that revolutionizes innovation environments worldwide to enable more effective teamwork. The system combines different hardware and software technologies to create a large, seamless display surface that is freely scalable. The solutions are based on over 8 years of research in interaction design and collaborative office environments and have been developed in close collaboration with some of the most innovative automotive, furniture and design companies, and research labs in the world. we-inspire has offices in Linz, Austria and we-inspire Inc office in Los Angeles, CA, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Anoto Group AB . For more information, please visit: www.we-inspire.com

For more information contact:

Anoto:

Stein Revelsby
CEO Anoto Group
[email protected] 
+46 733 45 12 05

or

Janne Virtanen
Davies Murphy Group
[email protected]        
+44 1256 807360

we-inspire:

Dr. Jakob Leitner
CEO & Co-Founder
w'inspire GmbH
Hafenstraße 47-51
4020 Linz,Austria
Tel.:   +43 681 81583971
[email protected]
www.we-inspire.com

or

Einy Paulsen, VP Business Development,
we-inspire Inc.,
7083 Hollywood Blvd
 Los Angeles, CA 90028
+1 909 500 3154 
[email protected]
www.we-inspire.com

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130102/NE35029LOGO

SOURCE Anoto Group AB