Diebold selling US voting machine unit [View All]

Diebold selling US voting machine unit
The Associated Press
Thursday, September 3, 2009; 3:40 PM

NORTH CANTON, Ohio -- ATM maker Diebold Inc. has sold its much-criticized U.S. voting-machine business to its bigger competitor, Election Systems & Software Inc. of Omaha, Neb. Diebold, based in North Canton, announced the sale of its Allen, Texas-based subsidiary Premier Election Solutions Inc. on Thursday and said it will get $5 million plus payments representing 70 percent of collections of the unit's accounts receivable as of Aug. 31. Diebold said it would disclose the additional payments at a later date. Diebold expects to recognize a pretax loss on the deal in the range of $45 million to $55 million.

Last year Premier generated 2.8 percent of Diebold's revenue. Diebold faced repeated criticism of the reliability and security of its touch-screen voting machines and began looking for a buyer for Premier more than two years ago. In 2007, Diebold distanced itself from the election unit, renaming it Premier, allowing it to operate more independently and giving it a separate board of directors. Its touch-screen voting machines used in elections across the country often drew criticism that the technology could be manipulated. The company has insisted touch-screen voting is reliable and an improvement over punch-card ballots that resulted in the disputed recount in Florida during the 2000 presidential election.

The sale reflects Diebold's decision three years ago to focus on key markets, including ATMs and security systems, according to spokesman Mike Jacobsen. The company is determined to move forward and not reflect on past election-system problems, he said.

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/03/AR2009090302639.html?hpid=topnews