ST. PAUL, Minn.—3M, the $23 billion global manufacturer based here, has entered into an agreement to buy all the shares of public biometrics manufacturer Cogent for roughly $950 million. Often known as Cogent Systems, the company provides finger, palm, face and iris biometric systems primarily to governments and law enforcement agencies. Its largest customer is the Department of Homeland Security.

Cogent will be added, should the deal go through, to 3M’s substantial Security Systems division, which did roughly $1.5 billion in revenue in 2009, mostly dealing in passports and badge printing. While 3M does have some biometric capabilities already, “Adding Cogent Systems’ products to our business strengthens our product portfolio and services in high security credential issuance and authentication systems and positions 3M’s business in law enforcement applications,” said Mike Delkoski, vice president and general manager, 3M Security Systems, in a statement. “It also expands our reach into access control and other commercial ID and authentication applications.”

Cogent did roughly $130 million in revenue in 2009, but is trending toward less than $100 million in revenue in 2010. The company employs roughly 500 people in its Pasadena, Calif., headquarters, as well as offices in Ohio, Virginia, Austria, Canada, China, and the United Kingdom. Ming Hsieh, Cogent’s founder and CEO, will remain with 3M going forward.

Cogent’s primary product is its Automated Fingerprint/Palmprint Identification System, or AFIS, which enables customers to capture fingerprint and palm print images electronically, encode prints into searchable files, and accurately compare a set of fingerprints/palm prints to a database containing potentially millions of prints in seconds.