The management buyout team, which was led by Imran Khand, the company’s chief executive and founder, purchased Picsel out of administration after raising funds worth “double digit millions -- north of £19m”, one insider told The Herald.
Khand said it was “not possible” to reveal the source of the funding or how much had been raised. But, he added: “I can tell you it is a large international industry player, but cannot say any more on this. I can tell you we have agreed the deal with creditors.”
One of Picsel’s biggest creditors is thought to be Malaysia Debt Ventures Berhad, whose web site says it “provides revolving project loans and industry support services”.
At the beginning of last year, Picsel owed the Malaysian group more than £20m.
Picsel, founded in 1998 by Khand, makes software that turns mobile phones into mini computers that can process video streams.
Before the administration, the company, which in 2008 won the Queen’s Award for Enterprise, employed more than 90 staff at its Scottish headquarters in Braehead, Renfrewshire, and had a further 40 employees in offices throughout Japan, China, Korea, Malaysia and the US.
The Administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, made 35 redundancies in July.
Picsel, whose technology can be found on more than 250 million devices worldwide with leading customer brands, including Motorola, Nokia, Samsung and Sharp, said the buyout had saved 50 jobs in Scotland and further 20 elsewhere in the world.
The company’s woes were triggered by cash flow problems caused by customers delaying new product developments as a result of the general economic downturn.
Khand said: “The market has definitely improved.” The buyout vehicle, a new company called Hamsard, acquired the business and assets of Picsel on October 9.
Khand added: “We believe our overall financial package for the company was by far the best solution to take this business forward, while also solving for interested parties, including employees. It is our intention to continue running the global headquarters from Glasgow, where we will re-establish a leading enterprise, which will continue to support the Scottish ICT sector”.
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