US software developer Bitstream is to buy the company in a deal that includes $6.5m (£4.5m) in cash and the assumption of liabilities related to deferred revenue, after Press-sense backers withdrew their support in March of this year.

Magliocco-Chagnon said the deal was driven "first and foremost" by the technology offered by Presssense, as well as its employees.

She said: "We were not going to take the technology and run, but rather take both and build a bigger, better business.

"It will create one of the most robust end-to-end offerings of business management tools available in the marketing and print sectors."

Press-sense's flagship iWay printon-demand workflow and management system has been adopted as a sole OEM web-to-print supplier by a number of companies, including Xerox, HP and Océ.

According to Magliocco-Chagnon, the acquisition will allow Bitstream to offer products for both frontand back-end processes.

Bitstream said at Ipex that it would continue to develop Presssense iWay and Manager products, but would also explore integration opportunities between its own Pageflex Storefront and the complementary Press-sense products.