Sold to the Swiss, another British tech triumph

THE maker of Britain’s best-selling computer has been bought by a Swiss tech company for £792m – but its inventor won’t make a penny.

Premier Farnell, which manufactures and distributes Raspberry Pi computers, was bought by Datwyler Holdings in a deal offering 165p per share – 51pc more than Monday’s closing price of 109.3p per share.

The computers are the same size as a credit card, but have enough computing power to work like an ordinary PC. Raspberry Pi was launched in 2012 to make computing more accessible as a hobby for children and enthusiasts. They can be used to make DIY gadgets such as an energy meter or a home-made robot. Yesterday’s takeover values the share capital of Premier Farnell at £615m, giving the business as a whole a value of £792m and sent shares soaring by more than 50pc.

But Eben Upton, the creator of the Raspberry Pi computer, will not cash in on the deal as he doesn’t hold shares in the company.

The 38-year-old, who was last week given a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, has seen more than 9m of his computers sold since the launch. The business is owned by a charity, the Raspberry Pi Foundation, and its profits go into running workshops to teach people how to code. Upton, the son of a university lecturer, said: ‘This will be a good thing in that it gives us more capability in countries where we’ve been less successful per capita, for example in Spain we’ve sold around 200,000 units.’

Premier Farnell – one of two manufacturers of the Pi – makes them at a factory in Pencoed, South Wales where 500 are employed.

Premier Farnell reported profits down 76.6pc in the six months to March and slashed its dividend by 40pc to 6.2p per share.

Yesterday shares rocketed 50.1pc, or 54.75p to 164p.