GPS World

Tag: merger

  • Uber and Decarta: Automated Taxi Tomorrow?

    Uber and Decarta: Automated Taxi Tomorrow?

    Janice Partyka
    Janice Partyka

    The force of mapping was punctuated this month when Uber, the juggernaut taxi service, acquired long-time mapping and navigation company deCarta. Uber and its competitor, Lyft, redefined taxi service with a smartphone app that connects users and drivers. These services have exceled by offering reliable low-cost rides and quick pick-ups, functionality that is enabled by seamless mapping and navigation technologies. Acquisition of a mapping company serves Uber’s high ambitions.

    Following introduction in San Francisco and New York, Uber just rolled out its ride sharing service, UberPool, in my city, Los Angeles. The service allows multiple individual customers going in the same direction to share a ride and lower their fare by as much as half. The potential for reducing traffic in congested cities is large, but how likely is it that UberPool can find matches and people willing to ride with strangers?

    New-Logo-Vertical-Dark-TEffective vehicle routing, navigation and traffic prediction is critical to making UberPool work. First, Uber must find pairs of trips that are similar enough in their timing and pathways to make a pairing attractive to the riders. Then, Uber needs to execute quickly and on time, given the unpredictability of whether the other rider is ready when expected. Coping with these uncertainties will be a huge challenge for Uber. Just 10 percent of work trips in America are by carpool. Can Uber develop the algorithm to make ride sharing attractive? Let’s wait and see.

    It is no surprise that Uber has announced that it will be developing self-driving car technology with the goal of self-driving Uber taxis. This puts it in direct competition with Google, one of Uber’s largest investors. Uber has partnered with Carnegie Mellon University to create a research center for mapping, vehicle safety and autonomy technology. If Uber can someday build cars that drive themselves, they can eliminate the need for a driver. The question for 2015 may well be, who is not pursuing driverless cars? Maybe Macy’s and Martha Stewart will partner on a particularly tasteful automated vehicle? Do you think you’d still have to tip?

    In other news, two former leading location competitors, LocationSmart and Locaid, have merged. Together they have the largest location-as-a-service platform for enterprise location for mission-critical applications in a number of industries including service assistance, proximity marketing, workforce management, emergency alerting, mobile gaming and transaction verification. As far as I know, they are not developing a self-driving vehicle.

  • AgJunction to Acquire Novariant

    Precision-agriculture company AgJunction has agreed to acquire precision-steering company Novariant, according to a joint press release.

    AgJunction holds numerous patents and markets its products and services under the brand names Outback Guidance, Satloc and AgJunction Cloud Services. AgJunction supports advanced farming practices and enables seamless data connectivity among growers and their agricultural service providers. Headquartered in Hiawatha, Kansas, AgJunction has facilities in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Winnipeg, and Queensland, Australia.

    Based in Silicon Valley, Novariant’s steering solutions are used in more than 60 countries. With 55 employees worldwide, Novariant generated revenues of approximately $30 million in 2014. Novariant offers interoperable auto-steer capabilities to original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and value-added resellers worldwide with more than 750 unique platform-install kits and more than 30,000 systems in the field.

    According to the statement, when combined the two companies will be better positioned to achieve market objectives through leveraging:

    • A larger presence with more resources
    • A broader OEM partner list
    • One of the precision agriculture industry’s most comprehensive intellectual property portfolios, providing increased IP protection for OEM partners
    • Increased R&D capability and efficiency
    • Complementary customers, market geographies and distribution channels
    • Reductions in operating redundancy to further improve profitability.

    Completion of the transaction is expected to take place this summer.

    “Novariant established itself as a pioneer in guidance and auto-steer technologies over 20 years ago,” said Dave Vaughn, CEO of Novariant. “Most recently, Novariant has sharpened its focus on precision agriculture and has positioned its offerings to address a major shift in our industry from after-market channels to factory-installed solutions.”

    “A shift like this occurs only once during the lifecycle of a technology, and great companies can be created by accelerating and innovating at the right time,” added Vaughn. “At Novariant we believe this is a transformational opportunity, and AgJunction is the right partner.”

    As global machine manufacturers increasingly target the integration of auto steer technologies at the factory level, the combined companies can bring advanced levels of machine automation to both current and future OEM clients faster and at lower cost.

    “The combination of Novariant and AgJunction creates an exciting opportunity for our company, for our customers, and for our shareholders,” said Rick Heiniger, president and CEO of AgJunction. “This merger extends the reach and influence with which we pursue a common passion — delivering the most accurate, innovative and reliable steering solutions in the world.”

    Once the merger is complete, the combined company will have approximately 200 employees worldwide and will be headquartered at Novariant’s corporate headquarters in Silicon Valley. The combined company plans to maintain additional offices in Kansas, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Canada and Australia.

    Dave Vaughn, CEO of Novariant, will be appointed CEO of the combined company, with current AgJunction CEO Rick Heiniger serving as senior advisor to the CEO. In addition, Wes Dittmer will continue to serve as the combined company’s CFO.

     

  • LocationSmart, Locaid to Merge for Cloud-Based Location Services

    LocationSmart, a provider of cloud-based location and interactivity services, and Locaid, a location-as-a-service platform for enterprise location, have merged to create an enterprise mobility platform for cloud-based location services.

    The merger agreement was unanimously approved by the boards of directors of LocationSmart and Locaid, and stockholders of both companies approved the merger on Feb. 19.  The combined company will operate under the LocationSmart brand.  In conjunction with the merger, LocationSmart secured equity and debt financing led by Intersouth Partners and Hamilton Lane (Florida Growth Fund) to integrate operations and accelerate growth initiatives.

    Mario Proietti will continue as CEO of LocationSmart, and Locaid founder and CEO Rip Gerber will serve on the company’s board of directors and as a strategic advisor.

    “We are excited that we could join together the two preeminent enterprise location platforms in the industry to better serve our collective customers,” Proietti said. “Working together will enable us to deliver a richer and more robust set of location services that translate into better solutions for our clients. The innovations delivered through our award-winning platforms will continue to lead the market in meeting their needs to locate mobile consumers, workers and assets anywhere, anytime and on any network.”

    “This unification of our location platforms is compelling,” Gerber said. “By joining forces, we provide a broader set of location enabling solutions to our enterprise customers, and serve as a more strategic service delivery channel for our wireless carrier partners.  This strategic combination makes us very formidable in every part of the mobile location-enabled world.  I am delighted that we were able to join the businesses together.”

    This combination creates a worldwide cloud-location platform with a customer base of more than 200 brands and companies locating millions of end users to enhance their services and business operations. The merger establishes a stronger platform for future innovation within the mobile location industry, providing significant benefits to all constituencies, including:

    • Enhanced and trusted, global location awareness of customers, workers and assets
    • Unified access to a multitude of device location sources with the largest reach in the industry
    • Reliable and highly scalable enterprise-grade location services available in the cloud
    • Fully managed and carrier-approved privacy controls compliant with industry best practices
    • Advancements in international device roaming solutions.

    The LocationSmart and Locaid platforms are employed by the Fortune 500 and other leading companies for mission-critical applications in a number of industries including service assistance, proximity marketing, workforce management, emergency alerting, mobile gaming and transaction verification. Through the integration of the two companies and their platforms, customers will be able to access, through a single unified web services interface, the most robust and comprehensive portfolio of cloud-based location services in the world.

  • Geoloqi Merges with Esri

    By Janice Partyka.

    Esri has announced that Geoloqi, a platform for next-generation location-based services (LBS), will merge its staff and product capabilities into Esri’s existing geospatial platform and launch a new Esri Research and Development (R&D) Center in Portland, Oregon, where Geoloqi is headquartered. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

    “We are excited to have the team at Geoloqi and its technology become part of the Esri family,” said Jack Dangermond, president of Esri. “Geoloqi’s capabilities and relationships with the developer community will build on Esri’s already impressive suite of ArcGIS products to create more dynamic mobile and web applications.”

    Geoloqi’s platform enables rapid development of cross-platform, geography-based applications using a single API in any development language. Geoloqi provides specialized algorithms that help preserve battery life while location runs in the background or at stated intervals.

    “It’s the perfect fit,” said Amber Case, CEO of Geoloqi. “Our tools and platforms are very complementary. We’ve seen a lot of other companies and start-ups try to work on only one piece of the location equation, but location doesn’t work with just one element. The entire system has to work together to add value, and Esri has just that.”

    Geoloqi’s service for existing developers will not be interrupted. The Esri R&D Center in Portland will be focused on developing new tools and functionality to create improved, integrated products that accentuate the strength of a combined platform.

  • CSR and SiRF Complete Merger

    CSR plc of Cambridge, UK, and SiRF Technology Holdings Inc., of San Jose, California, on June 26 completed the merger between SiRF and a wholly owned subsidiary of CSR. The merger resulted in “creating a provider of connectivity and location platforms and a company with the scale, technology, and strategy to enable its customers to address the exciting and emerging opportunities in mobile markets,” according to a company statement.

    The company said that customers of the enlarged CSR group will be able to deliver new user experiences of connectivity and location technologies in a diverse range of devices such as mobile phones, personal navigation devices, in-car navigation and telematics systems, laptop and netbook PCs, mobile internet devices, digital cameras, gaming machines, cellular accessories, and consumer electronic devices.

    “In bringing together the combined capabilities and broad range of CSR and SiRF technologies and platforms, we have created a new force in the industry and a world-class organization with the commercial, technical and operational scale to build on CSR and SiRF’s existing customer relationships and deliver the next generation of connectivity and location enabled products,” said Joep van Beurden, CEO of CSR. “Our strategic goal is to address the existing and emerging needs of our combined customer base for connectivity and location technologies. The potential applications and benefits to the end user of connectivity plus location are only just starting to open up, and these exciting new opportunities will be driven by our unique combination of leading location technologies and connectivity solutions.”

    “CSR and SiRF have a shared vision of using innovation to bring the benefits of wireless connectivity and location to mainstream consumers and enterprises and to enable new and exciting user experiences”, said Kanwar Chadha, co-founder of SiRF and newly appointed board member and chief marketing officer of CSR. “We believe that through this merger, our customers and consumers will derive benefits from a much stronger player whose focus is on delivering best in class connectivity and location platforms.”

    “Technology innovation represents the foundation for both CSR’s and SiRF’s success in the market place,” said James Collier, co-founder, board member and Chief Technology Officer of CSR.  “We look forward to combining the complementary expertise of our teams to take innovation to the next level in our multifunction radio and system platforms to address emerging customer and market needs.”

    For CSR’s customers, the merger with SiRF means CSR’s Connectivity Centre products are augmented by GPS technologies that are well respected and enjoy widespread adoption, the company said, while SiRF brings to CSR a strong IP portfolio in GPS and assisted GPS (A-GPS), dead reckoning, and location centric platforms. 
The enlarged CSR group will have its global headquarters in Cambridge, UK, with SiRF’s headquarters in San Jose becoming CSR’s U.S. headquarters.

  • TomTom – Tele Atlas Merger a Done Deal

    Following the announcement that Tele Atlas was making management changes in light of the pending merger, TomTom says that it has completed the merger of digital map supplier Tele Atlas.

    TomTom and Tele Atlas jointly announced Thursday, June 5, that TomTom “declares the recommended public offer for all issued and outstanding shares with a nominal value of €0.10 each in the capital of Tele Atlas unconditional.” TomTom said it will grant shareholders who have not yet tendered their shares under the offer to tender their shares in a post-acceptance period lasting until June 26; these shares are less than 3 percent of the total Tele Atlas shares.

    TomTom has been pursuing a merger with the digital map data supplier for nearly a year, outbidding rival Garmin in the process, in a deal worth approximately €2.9 billion ($4.5 billion). After a lengthy review by European anti-trust officials, TomTom and Tele Atlas received approval for the merger in May.

    Earlier this week the companies announced that during the acceptance period, which ended May 30, some 63,625,232 shares had been tendered for acceptance. Together with the 27,235,651 shares already held by TomTom and 1,685,000 shares to be delivered by Tele Atlas board members, the shares totaled 92,545,883, or 97.48% percent of the total issued and outstanding shares of Tele Atlas capital.

    As soon as legally possible, TomTom intends to remove Tele Atlas’ listings on European financial markets. The company also reiterated that it may initiate any of the reorganization measures as set out in the terms of its offer, which includes the possibility of a squeeze-out procedure.

  • Europe Takes Closer Look at Navteq/Nokia Merger

    While European regulatory authorities are closely scrutinizing the proposed TomTom/Tele Atlas merger, they have also turned their eyes to the proposed Navteq/Nokia deal.

    Navteq Corp. said today that the European Commission has initiated a second-phase review of Nokia’s pending acquisition of Navteq. The company stressed in its announcement that this is part of the commission’s review process and does not signal the ultimate outcome. Nevertheless, it is a rare, if not extraordinary step for the commission; in the past 10 years it has only initiated a second-phase review in about 3 percent of European mergers of publicly held companies.

    The Commission now has 90 working days to make a final decision on the transaction. However, the review period may be extended to 125 working days. Such has been the case with the TomTom/Tele Atlas deal, also under a second-phase review. Those two companies are anticipating a commission decision on their merger by May 21.

    Both Navteq and Nokia said they remain committed to their merger plans, noting that the deal has received all the other necessary regulatory approvals, including anti-trust approval in the United States.

    Meanwhile, TomTom said March 27 that it was extending the period of its offer for Tele Atlas. It was clear the European Commission wouldn’t reach a decision by the end of the previous time frame attached to the offer to acquire Tele Atlas for €30 per share, or about €2.9 billion, which would have ended March 31, TomTom said. As result, it has extended its offer to May 30. The Commission originally announced that it was initiating a second-phase review of the merger in November of last year.

  • Global Trek Xploration, Deeas Resources Enter Merger

    Global Trek Xploration, a provider of embedded miniaturized GPS technologies, has completed a share exchange transaction merger with Deeas Resources Inc.

    In conjunction with the transaction, the combined public entity is operating as GTX Corp. Global Trek Xploration is now wholly owned by GTX Corp, a publicly-held company, with shares quoted on the Over-The-Counter Bulletin Board (OTCBB : GTXO.OB). Patrick Bertagna, founder, current CEO, chairman of the board, and president of Global Trek Xploration, assumed those same duties for GTX Corp. while Jeffrey Sharpe, CEO and president of Deeas Resources Inc., joined GTX Corp’s board.

    “The next logical step was for us to become a publicly traded company,” Bertagna said. “The influx of new capital gives us the ability to launch our unique, miniaturized GPS technologies on to the global stage. We look forward to continuing the momentum we have achieved and sharing our successes with our shareholders.”

    Concurrent with the share exchange, GTX Corp. also completed an equity financing through a private placement of its common stock and stock purchase warrants for an aggregate amount of $8 million. The proceeds from the first tranche of financing will support the continued development of its miniaturized GPS real-time tracking technology and the licensing of its gpVector technology to branded consumer product partners.

  • Another GPS Chip Merger: NXP to Acquire GloNav

    European chip maker NXP Semiconductors plans to acquire U.S.-based fabless GPS chip maker GloNav Inc., the companies announced today.

    NXP will purchase the company for $85 million in cash plus up to $25 million more, contingent upon GloNav reaching certain revenue and product development milestones over the next two years. The transaction will give NXP immediate access to GloNav’s GPS products and technology, including its single-chip and 90nm design capability, the company said. It expects the deal to close in Q1 2008.

    “This is the second major acquisition that we have made this year to strengthen our Mobile and Personal Business Unit that quickly adds complementary technologies to our existing portfolio and meets our customers’ demands for innovative products,” said Frans van Houten, NXP CEO. “We are a leader in cellular system solutions. Combining GloNav’s GPS expertise with NXP’s FM Radio, Bluetooth, USB and NFC leadership, enables us to offer a broader connectivity suite to the mobile phone market.

    “We already turned the cell phone into a multimedia wallet,” he continued. “It’s only natural that we also want to use our mobile phones to navigate and to find local goods and services. GPS integration allows us to create these and many more interesting and dynamic features, continuously enriching the cell phone in our pocket.”

    GloNav has approximately 50 employees and contractors at locations in the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland and Taiwan. It will join NXP’s Mobile and Personal Business Unit.

    With the merger pending, GloNav investor Ceva Inc. said that it will divest its ownership stake in the company. European private equity firm Atlantic Bridge Venture created GloNav in 2006 through the divestment of Ceva’s GPS technology and product lines and a merger with California-based RFDomus Inc. Ceva’s ownership in GloNav is 19.9 percent on a fully diluted basis.

    The value of Ceva’s shareholding in GloNav, based on its ownership percentage and the acquisition purchase price, is approximately $17 million, more than four times the recorded value of approximately $4 million for the GloNav investment as accounted in in Ceva’s financial statements. “Today’s announcement that NXP Semiconductors is to acquire GloNav is great news for Ceva and in line with the company’s strategy to focus on its strength as a leading silicon intellectual property SIP provider for DSP cores, multimedia, Bluetooth and SATA products.” said Gideon Wertheizer, Ceva CEO.

    NXP’s acquisition of GloNav caps a busy year of high-profile acquisitions in the GPS sector of the semiconductor industry. A week ago wireless chip and chipset provider Atheros Communications Inc. announced plans to acquire GPS tech supplier u-Nav Microelectronics in a $54 million deal. Prior to that, SiRF Technology acquired Centrality Communications while Broadcom acquired Global Locate.

  • Navteq Shareholders Approve Nokia Merger Plan

    Navteq Corp. said Wednesday that its stockholders have approved the company’s pending merger deal with Finnish mobile phone giant Nokia.

    Shareholders representing more than 75 percent of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock eligible to vote and nearly 100 percent of the total votes cast at the special meeting Wednesday, voted in favor of the merger agreement. That move follows the company’s announcement late last week that it had received early termination of the mandatory waiting period under the U.S. Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

    Nokia plans to acquire Navteq for about $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion).

    Upon satisfaction of the remaining closing conditions, under the terms of the merger deal each outstanding share of the common stock of Navteq will be converted into the right to receive $78 in cash, without interest, and Navteq will survive the merger as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nokia Inc., according to the company. All unvested options to purchase common stock will accelerate and vest in full immediately prior to the consummation of the merger. Option holders will receive a cash payment for each option held equal to the excess of $78 over the applicable option exercise price, less taxes.

  • TomTom-Tele Atlas Merger Falls Under Scrutiny

    The European Commission (EC) is taking a closer look at TomTom’s planned acquisition of TeleAtlas; it looks as if it might have a tough European road to hoe.  The EC only initiates a second review in about 3 percent of the mergers it reviews, so it’s a bit of an extraordinary step. The probe will examine whether the deal would push up the price of digital maps for rival portable navigation device makers or limit their access to these maps, the EC said. It set an April 17 deadline for the probe to end.

    TomTom and Tele Atlas said in a joint statement they expect to have a clearer idea about whether the deal can go through by early next year. TomTom extended its offer for Tele Atlas shares until March 31, assuming it would know the outcome of the probe by then.

  • Navteq Schedules Stockholder Vote on Nokia Merger

    Navteq Corp. said Monday that it has scheduled a special meeting of stockholders next month to consider approval of the previously announced merger agreement between the company and Nokia.

    Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia and digital map supplier Navteq first announced on October 1 that they had reached a definitive merger agreement to the tune of $8.1 billion (€5.7 billion). In the meantime, PND rivals Garmin and TomTom became involved in a bidding war over Tele Atlas, a Navteq competitor.

    Navteq stockholders of record at the close of business on November 13, 2007, are entitled to notice of the special meeting and to vote on the adoption of the merger agreement, according to the company. The special meeting will be held on December 12 in Chicago. Proxy statements and the accompanying proxy card were mailed to Navteq stockholders earlier this month, the company said.

    Completion of the merger is subject to the adoption of the merger agreement by Navteq stockholders at the special meeting and the satisfaction of the other closing conditions set forth in the merger agreement. Navteq currently expects to complete the proposed merger in Q1 of next year.