Agfa signs off on its US$169 million typography business

The company will change its name into Monotype Imaging. It is the world's leading provider of fonts and font-related software technology for the display and imaging of text. The company is headquartered in Wilmington, MA (USA) and employs 144 people.

Agfa is continuing its focus on further strengthening its position in the prepress market and on building a new growth platform in industrial inkjet printing. The company believes the font business is not a core activity in this context and that divesting Monotype Imaging to TA Associates, which is committed to investing over the long term, will place the typography business in a stronger position to broaden its technology and market base.

The transaction was settled in cash.

Apart from having the largest collection of typefaces and fonts Monotype also provides print drivers and colour imaging technologies to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers). Monotype Imaging is home to the Monotype typeface library, a collection that includes widely used designs such as the Arial, Times New Roman and Gill Sans typeface families. Monotype Imaging offers fonts and industry-standard solutions for most of the world's written languages.