Help: which US voting machine company is now foreign owned?

I had been under the impression that Sequoyia was now owned by a South American company but I've heard from a local reporter (doing a story on electronic voting) who says that its headquarters are still in Oakland, CA.

Can someone let me know if Sequoyia is foreign owned. If not, is there another formerly US voting machine company that is now foreign owned?

Thanks kindly. The sooner I get this information, the better.

Google Sequoia and you'll find the info.

that a country Bush hates owns the voting machines.

Sequoia Voting Systems and Smartmatic Combine to form Global Leader in Electronic Voting Solutions

2005-03-09

OAKLAND, CA, March 9, 2005 - One of the nation's largest election service and technology providers, Sequoia Voting Systems today announced its combination with Smartmatic, a Boca Raton, Florida-based leader in highly-secure electronic voting solutions. As part of the new entity, Sequoia Voting Systems will continue to operate under its current name in all markets.

snip

Sequoia was previously held by U.K.-based De La Rue, PLC. De La Rue has decided to exit the voting system market to focus on its core competencies in producing bank notes, travelers' checks and cash handling equipment. Eureka Capital Markets, LLC served as De La Rue's exclusive financial advisor on the transaction. Smartmatic, a privately-held firm, acquired Sequoia in order to form a new global leader in providing a full range of electronic voting and election services solutions.

snip/more

http://www.sequoiavote.com/mediadetail.php?id=78


Smatmatic History

Seven years ago we were the Research and Development Unit of Panagroup in Venezuela. Our main goal was to provide smart connectivity and information technologies to the automation and industrial control market.

snip

http://www.smartmatic.com/about_us_02.htm

to have a US subsidiary. in this case smartmatic is apparently a florida llc, that is 100% owned by venezuelan shareholders such as a guy by the last name of Mugica (sometimes misspelled)

However, smartmatic does not own 100% of Sequoia, there's still a minority interest in Sequoia held by a former majority owner, before it sold the lion's share interest to de La Rue. there is continuity of minority ownership in that way.

http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200508141135

I have no idea how reliable it is but it has a lot of details assembled into one place and could be used as a starting point if you want to research further.

Here's what John Gideon sent me re: Sequoia:

Sequoia Voting Systems is a fully owned subsidiary of Smartmatic LLC which is a company owned by citizens of Venezuela. The Sequoia offices are still in California but Smartmatic is based in Florida. Sequoia has never been an American company. It was originally owned by Jackson-Smurfitt of Ireland, then DeLaRue of England who sold it to Smartmatic for $16M (US). http://www.vcrisis.com/index.php?content=letters/200508141135

You DUers are the best. In addition to the newspaper story, we have a television station doing between 2 and 4 segments on VVPB and the Election Center, starting very soon (very soon). I'll post the text as soon as the stories run.

that own some of Smartmatic.

Additionally Sequoia last ,month struck a deal with JACO in Long Island NY to purchase touchscreens-- 3000-- of them

I believe the last election was monitored by Jimmy Carter and he was able to corroborate Chavez's victory because there was paper there to audit.