Esko, formerly called ''EskoArtwork'', is a

graphic arts A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional graphics, i.e. produced on a flat surface,prepress Prepress is the term used in the printing and publishing industries for the processes and procedures that occur between the creation of a print layout and the final printing. The prepress process includes the preparation of artwork for press, media ...

software Software consists of computer programs that instruct the Execution (computing), execution of a computer. Software also includes design documents and specifications. The history of software is closely tied to the development of digital comput ...

and hardware for the packaging and labels, sign and display and publishing industries. Esko is headquartered in

Ghent Ghent ( ; ; historically known as ''Gaunt'' in English) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the Provinces of Belgium, province ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

and is a subsidiary of Veralto Corporation.

History

Esko was the result of a

merger Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are business transactions in which the ownership of a company, business organization, or one of their operating units is transferred to or consolidated with another entity. They may happen through direct absorpt ...

between '' Barco Graphics'' and '' Purup-Eskofot A/S'' in 2001. The merged company was called Esko-Graphics but was renamed Esko in 2006. In the fall of 2005, Esko became fully owned by

Axcel Axcel is a Nordic private equity firm with offices in Stockholm and Copenhagen. Since its foundation in 1994, Axcel has made 68 platform investments. The firm currently owns 20 companies across all four Nordic countries The Nordic countries ...

, a Danish private financial company. In August 2007 Esko announced that it was 'joining forces' with Artwork Systems Group NV (AWS), its chief competitor in the packaging prepress market. Esko initially bought 76.69% of AWS shares for €196 million. Enfocus, a brand of

PDF Portable document format (PDF), standardized as ISO 32000, is a file format developed by Adobe Inc., Adobe in 1992 to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, computer hardware, ...

pre-flighting and workflow software originally acquired by Artwork Systems in 2000, became a subsidiary of the combined EskoArtwork company. Reflecting the merger, Esko changed its name to EskoArtwork. It also introduced a new logo, though it is visually very close to the Esko original. In January 2011, 100% of EskoArtwork shares have been transferred to Danaher. In January 2012, the name changed back to Esko, the logo was also updated. Esko acquired

CAPE Systems A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment of any length that hangs loosely and connects either at the neck or shoulders. They usually cover the back, shoulders, and arms. They come in a variety of styles and have been used thr ...

(a palletization software vendor) in 2013, MediaBeacon (a

Digital Asset Management Digital asset management (DAM) and the implementation of its use as a computer application is required in the collection of digital assets to ensure that the owner, and possibly their delegates, can perform operations on the data files. Termino ...

vendor) in 2015 and Blue Software, LLC (a label and artwork management software vendor) in 2018. At the end of September 2023, Danaher spun-off its Environmental and Applied Solutions segment as Veralto Corporation.

References

External links

* {{Danaher Software companies of Belgium Computer hardware companies Printing companies of Belgium Danaher subsidiaries Companies based in Ghent