The Seybold Report

EFI Acquires printLEADER

EFI has acquired the assets of privately held printLEADER. a provider of print MIS (management information systems) software products for the printing industry headquartered in Palm City, Florida. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed by either company, but EFI stated in the press release announcing the purchase the company does not expect the expense to be material to EFI's Q2 or full-year 2013 results. In addition, the release noted EFI intends to integrate printLEADER's MIS products into EFI's PrintSmith vision product line, part of EFI's EPS group. more

Efi Arazi, Founder of Scitex and EFI, Has Died

Efi Arazi, founder of Scitex and EFI, died yesterday, April 14th, on his 76th birthday. EFI has issued a press release concerning this sad news, and here is what the company had to say about its Founder: "Arazi created his namesake company in 1988 after a pioneering, 20-year career as the Founder, President, and CEO of the first Israeli high-tech firm, Scitex Corporation.

Arazi served as Chairman, President and CEO of Electronics for Imaging (EFI) from 1988 until 1994, guiding the business from modest beginnings, with 18 employees in North Beach, San Francisco. Under his leadership and technical guidance, EFI launched Fiery, the printing industry’s first color server, in 1991. The product was an immediate success, leading to significant OEM partner contracts with the world’s leading color printer manufacturers.

Arazi completed an initial public offering for EFI in 1992. In 1994, Fortune magazine named EFI the nation’s fastest-growing public company. 'We are all deeply saddened by the passing of our founder and one of the most influential leaders in the history of our industry, and we send our sympathies and condolences to Efi’s family,” said Guy Gecht, the current CEO of EFI. 'Though no longer with us, Efi’s spirit of entrepreneurship, brilliant creativity and love of innovation will always remain at EFI.'

Arazi is widely considered to be the father of Israel’s high-tech industry for his role with Scitex. In the late 1960s, Arazi also worked with NASA while studying at MIT, developing the camera used to broadcast the Apollo 11 moon landing in 1969. Today, Arazi’s original EFI Fiery product line is the world’s leading digital color workflow technology, with more than 20 million Fiery users worldwide. EFI has grown to more than $652 million in annual revenues and manufactures award-winning digital color printing workflow products, MIS and ERP systems and inkjet printing technologies."

EFI Launches New Fiery Production and Proofing Software

EFI has launched Fiery XF Version 5,a high-speed digital front end and color management workflow for wide- to superwide-format production and proofing. This new Fiery software version enables workflow integration with VUTEk and EFI Wide-Format printers, as well as with EFI MIS/ERP systems. more

Electronics for Imaging Announces New Jetrion Printers

Electronics for Imaging has announced an addition to the Jetrion inkjet printer line, the 4900M UV digital printer with inline web finishing and the 4900M-330 with a 13 inch print width. more

EFI Announces Service Supporting Printing from Mobile Devices and Web

EFI has introduced the M500 Self-Serve Copy and Print Station for campuses, libraries, and print providers. The M500 accepts credit cards, campus cards, and cash cards at the device, eliminating the need for coin-operated machines and is Payment Application Data Security Standard (PA-DSS) compliant. more

Pegasus Interprint Adds EFI Digital StoreFront

Pegasus Interprint has added EFI Digital StoreFront to its EFI Pace-based workflow system. more 

EFI is Hiring for Professional Services Team

Digital printing system developer EFI is seeking skilled people to join its professional services team helping print management information customers. EFI consultants provide training, process design, and project management to print businesses. The company is seeking candidates in any major U.S. city who have a combination of print industry experience, technical aptitude, as well as a positive attitude and strong verbal and written communications skills. more 

EFI Acquires Cretaprint, Expands Inkjet Focus to Ceramic Tile Printing

EFI has acquired privately held Cretaprint S.L. of Castellon, Spain, a developer of inkjet printers for ceramic tile printing. The purchase allows EFI to expand into the ceramic tile market, which the company sees as a major growth opportunity. more

EFI Integrates Auto-Count with Heidelberg POLAR Cutting Equipment

EFI has announced it has integrated its Auto-Count direct machine interface technology with Heidelberg’s Polar high-speed cutting equipment. AutoCount has been deployed on sheetfed and web presses, flexo presses, perfect binders, saddle stitchers, and folders. more

EFI Releases Fiery Server for Ricoh Digital Color Production System

EFI has released the Fiery E-41A server for the Ricoh Pro C651EX/C751EX/C751 digital color production system. more

EFI Fiery Provides Native Support for Pantone Plus

EFI and Pantone have announced Fiery digital print servers and systems now provide native support for the Pantone Plus calibration technology for digital color devices and Pantone Plus Colors. more

EFI and Xerox Team on Web-to-Print

EFI and Xerox have partnered to provide the EFI Digital StoreFront Web-to-Print system to Xerox customers worldwide. The system is sold by the Xerox direct sales team and channel partners and is in use at more than 3,000 printing sites worldwide. more

EFI Acquires Prism Group Holdings

EFI has acquired Prism Group Holdings, developer of the WIN ERP/MIS system and QTMS shop-floor software for the printing industry. The acquisition was negotiated for Prism Group by Tennant & Russell LLC, a consulting company specializing in managing strategic moves by software vendors. more

WorkflowOne Selects EFI to Integrate Fiery-driven Print Environments

WorkflowOne, a provider of print management, marketing, and distribution services, is installing EFI Monarch and EFI Digital StoreFront at 15 sites in the United States. more

Océ and EFI Announce Global Partnership Expansion

Océ and EFI have announced a new worldwide referral agreement under which Océ will refer customers to EFI for management information services. more