LANSING — A local firm with a national reputation for producing cashless card technology has purchased one of its key rivals.

In a $38 million transaction announced recently, The CBORD Group Inc. acquired the Diebold Card Systems Division of Diebold Inc.

“We have competed against this division of Diebold for many years,” said CBORD Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Bruce Lane.

“This is a group of experienced industry veterans with excellent technology and we are excited to welcome them as part of the CBORD team.”

The move adds 140 new workers to the company as a whole, with about six new positions added locally, Lane said. CBORD has about 300 employees, most located at its Lansing headquarters.

With over 200 colleges using its campus card and housing management systems, DCSD serves such institutions as Cornell University, Colgate University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Stanford University. The added customer base will complement CBORD's 650 card and housing systems customers, including schools such as Ithaca College, University of Notre Dame, Syracuse University and Yale University.

“For us, it was a major addition,” Lane said.

Thanks to the transaction, CBORD now serves well over 6 million card holders across the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

CBORD was founded in 1975 by John Alexander, then a graduate student at Cornell. Partners Tim Tighe and Lane joined a decade later.

Located on The Ithaca Commons for many years, CBORD relocated to the Cornell Business and Technology Park in the 1990s.

“Finding a company to acquire that has that right mix of good people, good products, and a good service reputation is not an easy thing,” Tighe said of the Diebold deal, adding that it's a “great way” to celebrate CBORD's 30th anniversary.

Contact: rdupuis@ithacajournal.com

Originally published July 23, 2005