[gui-talk] Has Freedom Scientific Been Sold

[David Andrews]

Earlier today a trusted friend sent me an e-mail stating that Freedom 
Scientific -- maker of JAWS for Windows, Magic, the Pac Mate, and 
other things, had been purchased by WAFRA Partners, but then the 
announcement was pulled from their web site.

A Google search for Freedom Scientific WAFRA Partners turned up a 
couple hits including the following which appeared in the "Blind 
Confidential" blog today.  Who knows what is exactly going on...

David Andrews

Tuesday, May 15, 2007
Why the Secrecy?

In the past day, Blind Confidential has received a lot more 
information about the Freedom Scientific acquisition by New York 
based and Kuwaiti owned Wafra
Investment Group. A lot of the new information also falls into the 
category of hearsay but one particular item, the google cached pages 
from the WAFRA
containing an announcement of the acquisition seems to add a lot of 
credibility to the rumors.

The following comes from the google cache of the WAFRA web page. The 
announcement, originally posted on April 25 has, without explanation, 
been removed
from the web site:

Wafra Partners Announces Acquisition of Freedom Scientific, Inc.
April 25, 2007

Wafra Partners LLC and Wafra Investment Advisory Group, Inc.* are 
pleased to announce the acquisition of Freedom Scientific, Inc.

Freedom Scientific, Inc., based in St. Petersburg, FL, is the leading 
worldwide provider of assistive technology products for those who are 
low vision
or blind. Assistive technology products make information, whether in 
electronic or print format, and computing accessible to those who are 
low vision or
blind. The Company's software products include screen reading 
software, screen magnification software and scanning and reading 
software. Hardware products
include handheld computers, Braille displays, scanning and reading 
machines, video magnifiers and Braille printers.

Wafra Partners LLC is a private equity firm focused on middle market 
companies based in North America that have enterprise values between 
$20 and $150
million. We are currently seeking acquisitions of companies in 
consumer products, outsourced business services, niche manufacturing, 
and consumer-driven
services.

* Wafra Investment Advisory Group, Inc. serves as investment advisor 
to the investments referred to herein. Wafra Partners LLC seeks 
companies within the
parameters and sectors set out above.

Blind Confidential has not contacted any FS employees as I do not 
want to jeopardize any of my old friends professional situations by 
asking them to provide
information that FS asked them to keep secret. My sources, however, 
have contacted a number of people within FS. Freedom managers seem to 
be saying, "FS
is a privately held company and ownership information or any 
acquisition details do not need to be disclosed." When asked about 
WAFRA, one FS manager is
said to have replied, "I don't know anything about that."

Communication with the FS rank and file has resulted in people 
telling BC sources, "we were brought into an 'All Hands' meeting and 
told that the company
had been sold," but no Freedom personnel is saying to whom the 
company may have been sold and details like the selling price remain 
undisclosed. Some FS
employees have grumbled that their stock options turned out to be 
worthless but no one seems to know the threshold above which the 
company had to sell
in order for the employees to make some money on the deal.

I have received a number of phone calls and emails from people 
worried about FS falling into the hands of a Middle Eastern 
government. I do not share these
worries as I have witnessed the great work done by the Kuwaiti 
government in non-denominational altruistic pursuits around the world 
over they years. While
not perfect, Kuwait is among the more free nations in the area and 
has been a terrific ally of the US over they years.

So, why the secrecy? Why did WAFRA post the acquisition announcement 
only to pull it down a few days later? Did the deal fall through? If 
so, why haven't
the employees been told?

It's my opinion that secrecy tends to lead to the worst kind of 
paranoid, conspiracy ridden sort of conjecture that our community, an 
intensely closed
circle of gossips, nutcases (include me in this group) and people 
with little more to do than guess what the maker of JAWS, the world's 
most important
product used by blind people, is up to?

All I can say is that I wish FS the greatest possible future no 
matter who owns the business but I must admit that my curiosity has 
been raised by the
cloak and dagger intrigue surrounding the alleged sale of Freedom.

-- End

posted by BlindChristian at
8:09 AM



David Andrews and white cane Harry.