TL;DR

Oxford Metrics announced on Friday 9 October that it has paid £525,000 in cash for Move AI Ltd’s assets. Move AI is a London developer of AI motion capture. The deal came the same morning as a trading update that now forecasts an adjusted EBIT loss in the range of £0.5m to £3.9m across an extended 15-month financial year.

What Vicon gets

Move AI turns ordinary video into 3D movement data using computer vision and a model of human biomechanics, so performers need no markers or special suits. Its products run from single-camera apps for creators up to multi-camera and real-time studio systems, led by its Genesis platform, and can track several people across an area the size of a football pitch.

The purchase, made after a competitive bidding process according to the company’s stock exchange notice, brings Move AI’s patents and other intellectual property, staff and customers into its motion capture division, Vicon. Including immediate transaction costs, the total outlay is about £725,000. Move AI’s 2025 revenue was £1.1m, unaudited. Vicon added markerless facial capture in September by buying Captive Devices.

“Move AI further strengthens that offering,” said Gary Bullard, who chairs Oxford Metrics and is acting as its interim chief executive.

The trading picture

Oxford Metrics moved its year end to 31 December, so FY26 runs for 15 months from October 2025. It now expects revenue of £47m to £51m for that period and an adjusted loss before interest and tax, both below market expectations. It blames weaker film, television and games investment, tighter research budgets, especially in the US, and a delayed inspection project in its vision metrology division.

Robotics is the bright spot. Vicon has won orders from big robotics firms. Its equipment records the human motion used to train robots, and supplies reference measurements for testing robots and autonomous systems. The group wants Vicon to become a wider “movement intelligence platform” and has secured exclusive rights to a large outside collection of human movement recordings. It also plans a buyback of up to £3m and has named Stefan Lampa as chief executive from 1 December.

Looking forward

The price is small, but the logic is about data. In our view, the deal shows how a UK hardware specialist facing weaker demand in its established markets is repositioning around AI training data, where accurate human movement is in demand from robotics developers. Whether that offsets weaker entertainment and research spending should become clearer at December’s interim results.