Visiplex buys assets of PACS firm Genesys for digital imaging entree

Purchase follows joint marketing relationship

Visiplex Instruments has been looking for a migration path frommultiformat cameras to digital imaging ever since the companywas formed last year in a management-led buyout of Agfa's MatrixInstruments camera business (SCAN 7/14/93). Visiplex found thatpath last month, when it closed a deal to purchase the assetsof Genesys, a Florida-based PACS developer.

Visiplex has developed and released new compact camera productssince buying the Matrix unit, but the Orangeburg, NY, companyrealized that multiformat cameras are destined to go the way ofthe dinosaur due to competition from digital imaging.

To explore its options in the digital realm, Visiplex formeda joint marketing agreement with Genesys last year to sell eachother's products on a global basis (SCAN 1/19/94). That relationshipevolved into an asset purchase, according to Seamus Carroll, vicepresident of sales and marketing for Visiplex.

"We see this as a way to move from a part of the diagnosticimaging business that is declining," Carroll told SCAN. "Thisgives us an opportunity to participate in a business that is growingand will basically take over for film in the coming decade."

It's no secret that Genesys has been a company in play forsome time. A deal in which the firm would have been acquired byteleradiology vendor Image Data fell through in early 1993, andGenesys underwent a restructuring a short time later (SCAN 1/27/93and 3/24/93).

The acquisition by Visiplex was structured not as an outrightsale but rather as a purchase of assets, Carroll said. Visiplexbought licenses and rights that will enable it to sell the PACSfirm's products. Genesys will continue to exist as a shell company,he said. Carroll declined to disclose further details of the acquisition.

Genesys products include:

** Imlogix, a line of display stations Genesys acquired in1992 (SCAN 12/30/92);

** ROI, PACS software that runs on IBM's RS/6000 workstation;and

** FilmFax, a PC-based teleradiology product that uses a Lumisysscanner to digitize films, which can then be sent to remote sites.

Visiplex plans to continue the Imlogix and FilmFax lines largelyunchanged, Carroll said. The ROI software will undergo some tweaking,however. Visiplex plans to change the name of the product to VisiPACS,Carroll said. It will be marketed as a mini-PACS offering, witharchiving left to the site's systems integrator.

"The Siemens and the Agfas of the world will do the large-scalePACS and we will do the mini-PACS and the teleradiology add-onsand the peripherals that the major PACS players will need to maketheir systems work properly," Carroll said.

Visiplex is moving the Genesys manufacturing plant and officesfrom Maitland, FL, to Orangeburg. Some Genesys employees, includingpresident Robert Watson, will continue with Visiplex. Watson'snew title is vice president of strategic planning, Carroll said.