Orolia, a group specialized in positioning, navigation and GPS timing equipment and systems for critical operations, on July 18, 2012, announced the acquisition of Boatracs Inc., a maritime information solutions provider for the commercial marine industry (fishing vessels, dredgers, tugs, barges, training vessels, rescue boats, oil platform service vessels, etc..).
The Boatracs acquisition is part of the group’s strategy to move up the value chain by offering more complete business solutions to its customers operating critical infrastructure in remote or harsh environments. These solutions consist of a hardware platform, a communications beacon which allows for wireless data transmission and reception and software which provides a web-based user interface to facilitate effective data communications between ship and shore. The business model calls for initial hardware sales followed by recurring airtime revenue and SaaS (Software as a Service). This business model and leverageable technology platforms give Orolia the opportunity to expand its solution offerings to all its customers worldwide.
“This acquisition not only expands our product offering, but also strengthens our presence in the North American fishing and workboat market segments. It has the added benefit of bringing us critical size in the application software domain, human-machine interfaces and client-server architectures that are crucial for the development of M2M solutions and services for our customers operating in challenging environments,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, President and CEO of Orolia . “Strategically, we now have in Orolia a strong software center of excellence and solutions competency on which to build more valuable business contributions for all our customers.”
“Boatracs will benefit from Orolia’s international sales presence in the maritime sector to expand its business reach, taking advantage of our prominent brands and customer relationships all over the world,” explains Irwin Rodrigues, CEO of Boatracs Inc . “As part of Orolia, we will have additional resources to accelerate our market leader position in commercial maritime communications solutions through new product offerings and global coverage and be at the forefront of meeting the evolving needs of the industry.”
Over 1,000 customers, strong recurring revenue
Boatracs is a North American company known over 20 years for its reliable communications, tracking and monitoring and innovative software solutions for the workboat and commercial fishing markets. Boatracs is based in San Diego, California, where it employs about twenty people. All of the revenues are generated in the North American continent through a customer base numbering over 1000. In fiscal 2011, Boatracs achieved revenues of $5 million (with nearly 75% recurring for software and communications services sales).
[mappress]
Source: Boatracs, July 27, 2012