Fingerprint Cards

The development of the fingerprint sensor started during the 1980s by Bo Löfberg. He worked to develop a fingerprint sensor during his last years and later patented the technology before he died in 1986. The sensor was only half way finished at the time of his death but the license was sold to Lennart Carlson who later started his company in 1997, Fingerprint Cards. The company went public in 1998, but still did not have a completed product to sell. On the CeBIT fare in 1999 Ericsson Mobile Communications could showcase a prototype accessory for the Ericsson line of mobile phones that was using a licensed sensor and ASIC from FPC. They also managed to secure licensing deals with Motorola and Texas Instruments, the latter developed an authentication platform known as FADT, the Fingerprint Authentication Development tool based on FPC sensors but using Texas Instruments TMS320 rather than the company's own ASICs for algorithmic processing. FPC made large losses in the developing process and investors had to raise 250 million SEK before the company started produce revenue. Lennart Carlson stepped down as CEO in 2009 and Johan Carlström took over the position from 2009 — 2015.

2013 — 2015

FPC's first sensor was launched in 2013. It was compatible with Android and Windows. Johan Carlström resigned in 2015 as CEO because of the ongoing investigation against him and Jörgen Lantto took over the position as CEO in 2015. During 2015, FPC started to generate sales and its stock started to rise. FPC stock price rose from 6 SEK in the beginning of the year 2015, to 118.20 SEK by the end of the year. FPC was a heavily traded stock during 2015.

2015 — present

On 3 July 2017, FPC was included on the OMX Stockholm 30 which is the 30 most traded stocks in terms of turnover on the Stockholm stock exchange. FPC was later removed on 2 July 2018.

As the company experienced growing competition, they announced five profit warnings during 2017 and 2018 which caused the stock price to plummet. At its peak, FPC had a market value of 42.7 billion SEK compared to its current market value of 4.2 billion SEK as of May 2019. In July 2018, the company said that conditions were challenging and that it expected the demand for fingerprint sensors to continue to decline. FPC has since worked on diversifying its business with iris recognition and smartcards.

In 2016, Jörgen Lantto was replaced as CEO by Christian Fredrikson, who is the former CEO of FPC. On 21 March 2017, FPC's stock fell 40% after a profit warning. Since then, the stock has continued on a downward trend with constantly declining profits in their annual reports. In the middle of 2018, the stock price was at a low of 6 SEK, the stock has since recovered and is trading at around 13 SEK as of April 2019. Revenue in 2016 was 6638 million SEK, 2966 million SEK in 2017 and 1535 million SEK in 2018.

Subsidiaries

FPC has acquired two companies since it was founded in 1997. The first acquisition was made in 2014 when they acquired AnaCatum Design. The second acquisition was the California-based company Delta ID in 2017.

AnaCatum Design

In 2014, FPC acquired AnaCatum Design AB for an undisclosed amount. AnaCatum is a Swedish-based company from Linköping, founded in 2009. AnaCatum Design AB specialises in technology licensing and ASIC development. Shortly after the acquisition in 2014, AnaCatum and FPC announced a new fingerprint sensor, the FPC1150. The FPC1150 was the world's first touch fingerprint sensor that could be mounted on the front side of Android smartphones. The development of the FPC1150 was possible through cooperation with AnaCatum Design. The new sensor was half the size of the previous sensor (FPC1020), allowing it to be mounted in the home button of mobile devices. This had never been possible before due to size constraints. Previous sensors that the company had developed could only be mounted on the backside of smartphones.

Delta ID

In 2017, FPC acquired Delta ID. Delta ID was founded in 2011 and based in California. Delta ID was acquired by FPC for US$106 million. Delta ID develops biometric authentication based on iris recognition for smartphones, PC, tablets and vehicles. Since the acquisition, many of the officials in Delta ID has decided to leave the company. In January 2018, Vice President (Vivek Khandelwal) left Delta ID and started working for another company. Sales manager, Dillon Xiao and CFO, Hue Harguindeguy, has also left their positions at Delta ID since the acquisition.

Hardware & Software

FPC manufacture different sensors which uses different technology for fingerprint recognition. These technologies include;

Criticism and Controversies

2012

FPC reported suspicious movement in stock prices before important events and interim reports during 2010–2012. In 2012, two non-executive employees at FPC got arrested on the suspicion of insider trading. One of the arrests, Tord Wingren, resulted in a 1-year and 6 months in prison by the district court. This sentence was later eased in the court of appeal. Tord Wingren was released on probation with 200 hours of community service, a 5-year ban on business/trading activity and obligated to pay back the 1.6 million SEK he benefitted from the insider trading in FPC. During the same incident, Anders Hultqvist who is a past board member, was also sentenced to 1 year and 6 months in prison by the district court. Anders Hultqvist also got his sentence eased by the court of appeal. Anders Hultqvist got a 1-year and 2 months prison sentence, a 5-year ban on any business related activity and ordered to pay back the 200,000 SEK profit made from the insider trading in FPC.

2013

In 2013, a fraudulent website was made by an unknown person. The website announced fake documents and press releases about FPC being purchased for 4.2 billion SEK while the actual value of the company was about half of that during the time. The press releases announced that Samsung was going to use FPC technology and had decided to acquire the company. This caused the market value of FPC to increase with 1.5 billion SEK (+50% in stock value) before the stock was trade stopped. The investigation did not lead to any arrest and was later dropped in 2015. Both Samsung and FPC denied to have been in contact with each other and confirm that the press releases were fake.

2014

In 2014, FPC's office got raided again. The CEO, Johan Carlström, and one other board member were suspected for insider trading. The Swedish Economic Crime Authority stated that the investigation against Johan Carlström had been ongoing for nearly a year and concerned several different insider trades. Johan Carlström allegedly traded stocks multiple times before important event in the company. Johan Carlström later decided to step down as CEO and resign from the board in 2015.

2017

In 2017, board member Lars Söderfjell and equity owner Johan Carlström were arrested again for insider trading. Finansinspektionen (Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority), which monitors all companies that are operating in Swedish financial markets, started to investigate FPC after a large amount of stocks had been sold before a profit warning in 2016. The profit warning was announced on 8 December 2016 and Finansinspektionen began their investigation on 12 December 2016. Söderfjell has since the incident been released from custody and denied the allegations. The trial against Johan Carlström has been postponed multiple times since he was first arrested. The trial is currently scheduled to take place during spring of 2020.