A Northern Ireland digital camera company announced a major acquisition yesterday.

Andor, which makes sensitive cameras for academic, industrial and government use, paid £3.25m cash for the trade and assets of American company Photonic.

It is the second acquisition in under four months for Andor, one of Northern Ireland’s few publicly quoted companies.

Andor said a further sum of cash and shares up to a combined sum of $1.95m (£1.3m) could be payable by Andor if Photonic exceeds order targets and product development goals.

Andor, which employs 248 people, started out as a spin-out company from Queen’s University.

Photonic makes laser and lamp-based systems and reported an operating profit of $0.8m at the end of last year. It has two US bases but will move manufacturing to Belfast within one year of the deal. Sales will be managed from Andor’s existing base in Connecticut.

In a statement to the London Stock Exchange, Andor chief executive Conor Walsh said: “Photonic has a strong market position, patented technology, high margin performance and good cash generation. It will be a perfect fit in our systems division and I am delighted to welcome the team to Andor.”

Photonic’s management and founders will stay with the business.

Andrew DeSimone, co-founder of Photonic, said: “We are also excited about developing the next stage of the technology together with the engineering team at Andor and look forward to the successful delivery of the product roadmap.”

The deal with Photonic also includes consideration of the issue of over 56,000 ordinary shares of 2p each in the capital of Andor.

Andor said its December acquisition of Bitplane, which makes multi-dimensional image analysis software, had been a success. “We are pleased to report that the integration of the business is progressing well, that the cultural and technical fit between the companies is good and the transaction has been well received by customers,” a spokesperson said.

Andor is to release interim accounts on June 15 2010. “We are also pleased to report that trading at Andor for the first six months of the financial year to September 30 2010 is anticipated to be ahead of expectations,” a spokesperson added.

The company has recorded revenue growth of 30% on average per year over the last 12 years.