Immersion Sheds Its CyberGlove

CyberGlove

Immersion, a maker of touch feedback technology used in mobile phones, gaming, medical training, and other applications, said Friday it has sold its CyberGlove product line to private equity firm Shackleton Advisors. Financial details were not disclosed.

Immersion sold the portfolio as part of its strategy to focus only on its medical and touch lines of business. The CyberGlove device straps on to a person's hands and captures motion and maps it to a graphical hand on a computer screen, allowing users to virtually reach and manipulate digital objects as if they were physical.

The full product line, hardware and software, will be sold by a new company called CyberGlove Systems. Faisal Yazadi, former head of sales for Immersion's CyberGlove division for the last 10 years, will become chief executive of the Shackleton-owned business.

"I am very excited about this transaction," Yazadi said. "We continue to acquire new customers, and customer demand is anticipated to increase as we invest in our products and share our software development kit for the development of new applications."

Shackleton said it was confident of the new company's potential for growth. "The data glove application for industrial engineering, motion capture, and gaming continues to be an underserved market," Mark Schelbert, managing partner of Shackleton, said in a statement. "Product improvements and strategic partnerships will further create much greater customer demand and a more sizable market."

CyberGlove products are used in gaming and in computer-aided design in a variety of industries, such as aerospace, automotive, biometrics, and engineering. The technology also is used in military training. Customers include Fortune and Global 500 companies, and government agencies and universities in the United States, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and South America, Immersion said.

CyberGlove Systems will be headquartered in San Jose, Calif. The new company has agreed to honor current product warranty obligations and will continue to provide support to existing customers.

Immersion's remaining products include touch-feedback technology used in medical training tools, game consoles, mobile phones, and other applications.

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