Elsa Inc, a graphics and datacoms peripheral maker, is buying one of the original graphics card innovators – Hercules Inc – for $8.5m in cash. The acquisition is intended to boost Elsa’s profile in Europe, where Hercules enjoys a strong presence, particularly in the consumer market. Elsa describes Europe as a market ‘that has hardly been tapped’ by it, despite the fact that the California-based company is a subsidiary of Elsa AG, a quoted company based in Aachen, Germany. Elsa CEO Theo Beisch describes the buyout as the start of an aggressive program of expansion. The two companies will merge US headquarters to cut short-term costs. Hercules was one of the original players in the graphics card market first introducing products back in the early eighties. Indeed, Hercules CEO, Peggy Fong claims that the company is known worldwide as inventor of the PC graphics card.
