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Zebra Acquisition Adds Ultra-Wideband Location Apps Sign Up to receive Daily News Alerts in your E-mail Inbox
Posted on Wednesday, April 16, 2008 4:40:47 PM |
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In its fourth acquisition in a little more than a year, Zebra Technologies Corp. today announced it will purchase Multispectral Solutions Inc. (MSSI) for an undisclosed amount, in a deal that will allow Zebra to build out its wireless portfolio with ultra-wideband, real-time locating systems.
MSSI’s products, including the Sapphire DART real-time locating system, are used in manufacturing, distribution, retail, and government sectors to locate personnel in high-risk environments, such as refineries, and to track inventories, material handling equipment, and component parts in complex manufacturing environments, Zebra said.
The MSSI acquisition is Zebra’s latest attempt to expand its technology expertise beyond bar-coding — which accounts for about 90% of its business — and broaden its range of RFID technologies.
"MSSI's products and technology are an excellent complement to Zebra's Gen 2 passive RFID and other active RFID products," said John Dillon, senior vice president of Zebra Technologies and general manager of Zebra Enterprise Solutions Group, in a statement. "With a strong reputation for quality and innovation, UWB technology from MSSI is particularly attractive for its locating precision and cost advantages in challenging industrial environments.”
Ultra wideband is a radio technology that uses very low energy for short-range, high-bandwidth communications. UWB can be used to locate items with accuracy from one foot to within inches, and it is suited for use in electronically "noisy" environments, such as factories, warehouses, and computer rooms, because of its ability to withstand interference caused by radio signal reflection off metal and other surfaces.
Since early last year, Zebra has been using acquisitions to aggressively build out its radio technology portfolio. In January 2007, the company paid $126 million for WhereNet Inc., a provider of active RFID for tracking enterprise assets. Later in 2007, Zebra continued to fill out its offerings with the $16.3 million acquisition of proveo AG, another real-time location technology provider primarily using GPS and WiFi technologies on airport ground support equipment. And, late last year, Zebra completed the $145 million acquisition of Navis Holdings, LLC, a provider of software that automates container terminal operating systems used in marine terminals and other operations managing cargo in the supply chain.
The acquisitions are part of Zebra’s strategic plan to deliver industry-specific applications in emerging areas, the company said. Zebra, which brought in Anders Gustafsson as CEO in September 2007, finished its fiscal 2007 with no long-term debt.
“We’ve been able to expand our global footprint over the last several years, and we’ve been able to delve more deeply into targeted vertical markets, such as healthcare, retail, and manufacturing,” Douglas Fox, Zebra’s VP of investor relations, told Managing Automation.
As a result, he said, the company is generating revenue and ready to invest in the future — which includes many flavors of RFID.
“We’ve had a long history of growth such that we’ve accumulated a lot of cash, which enables us to expand into new areas,” Fox said. That could include more acquisitions in the future. “We do have an active acquisition program, which is clearly an important element of our growth strategy,” he said.
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