Comtech Announces Earnings, Location Deals
Location Provider Grabs 911, LBS Contracts
Spurred by contracts for its 911 and location services, Comtech Telecommunications Corp.’s [CMTL] second quarter net sales of $161.3 million and adjusted EBITA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) at $18.1 million exceeded expectations.
During the quarter, Comtech was awarded a Pennsylvania state contract valued as much as $175.1 million to design, deploy, and operate next-generation 911 ("NG-911") services, which include locating and mapping 911 calls. The company also was awarded a $54 million contract for NG-911 services in South Carolina.
The Solacom 911 product, used in the NG-911 services, is not the only line doing well for Comtech, said Mike Porcelain, company president and COO. “We have received several location-based service orders from mobile network operators (MNOs), including a one-year contract valued up to $1.6 million, to provide hosted location-based services,” he said in a recent earnings call. “We also received two other location-based orders aggregating $2.4 million from two other mobile network operators.”
Porcelain didn’t reveal who the mobile network operators were, but said the company works with all of the large U.S. mobile operators. “We have been the first to market and secured 100 percent of the U.S. 5G location-based bids—and are poised to continue this momentum,” he said.
Other takeaways:
Porcelain said that 5G brings Comtech an unprecedented ability with MNOs to use the IoT ecosystem to create additional business value proposition into Public Safety and Commercial markets, something which was not possible in legacy wireless networks.
As MNOs continue to upgrade their networks to 5G, not only will the company see the growth in business around 911 (emergency calls), but also in non-emergency commercial use cases.
Use cases such as Smart Public Safety, Vehicle to Everything, Smart Cities, and Industrial Automation will be prime use cases where Comtech’s 5G Location solutions play a major role, Porcelain said.
Spireon Buys CalAmp’s U.S. LoJack Business
Spireon has acquired CalAmp’s LoJack U.S. stolen vehicle recovery business. Spireon, an aftermarket telematics provider, indicated that the venerable brand may be integrated with its Kahu connected car technology that targets auto dealers.
Financial details were not disclosed.
Other takeways:
CalAmp, which said it would “wind down” the LoJack U.S. business, entered into a cooperative service arrangement with Spireon to “ensure the uninterrupted quality of service during the transition.”
CalAmp said it will retain and continue to expand LoJack International, which operates as a subscription-based SaaS business.
CalAmp will also retain ownership of LoJack patents and trademarks.
Spireon currently has 4 million subscribers from 20,000 customers, the company said.
Waze CEO Rips Google, Gets Ripped by Analyst
Waze CEO Noam Bardin ripped the culture at Google, and Silicon Valley in general, in a recent article. Bardin, at the helm of Waze when Google purchased it for $966 million in 2013, said that his former search engine colleagues acted entitled and lacked focus on products and customers.
In a rebuttal on LinkedIn, Roger Lanctot, Strategy Analytics associate director for global telematics, says that maybe the mapping honcho also lacked “self-awareness and a sense of responsibility.”
Takeaways from the article:
“Waze had little or no revenue on its books upon its acquisition. Google sought out Waze to capture the value of map-centric search to add to its dominant position in Internet search. Google was also seeking to remedy its own weakness in traffic modeling for navigation routing.”
Two years before acquiring Waze, Google inked a deal with Inrix, a deal that was lukewarm to the search engine giant, which was determined to have its own in-house capability, Lanctot said.
Waze on smartphones basically wiped out the portable navigation device businesses from Garmin, TomTom and others.
With Google’s support Waze was undermining the value of built-in navigation systems from Pioneer, Alpine, Continental, Harman, Bosch, LG and their map suppliers HERE and TomTom.
Waze’s success devastated and consolidated the market for traffic information services.
Sirota Replaces Gunderson as Mapbox CEO
Digital mapmaker Mapbox said it named Peter Sirota as new CEO, replacing Eric Gunderson. Sirota was the company’s senior vice president of engineering and also worked at Amazon.
Other Mapbox notes:
The company said it would be pursuing mapping opportunities in logistics and automotive.
Mapbox has hundreds of millions of monthly active users.
Gunderson, a company founder and CEO for 10 years, will be “deeply involved” in product and business strategy as chief strategy officer. He also will be chair of the Mapbox board.
Other Location News:
Several large companies (Facebook, Nokia, Ericsson, Samsung etc.) are bailing out of this year’s Mobile World Congress, scheduled to be held, in person, June 21 to July 1 in Barcelona. Are trade shows in danger as a result of the pandemic?
Via Buys San Francisco-based mapping startup Remix for $100 Million. Said industry veteran and professor Alain Kornhauser in his autonomous vehicle newsletter: “Wow, I should start another mapping company. I can’t imagine that cities pay anyone for transportation mapping services’ amounts that would make them worth $100 million. While better ‘mapping’ might help Via, it doesn't become self-sustaining until it can become driverless, just like Uber/Lyft.”
Allvision IO partnered with TomTom for a new asset information and tracking product. The new platform allows organizations to pinpoint assets, including signage, streetlights, overpasses, paint lines, guardrails, telephone poles, ADA compliant sidewalks, vegetation encroachment, the company said.
Apollo Strategic Growth Capital and Vista Equity Partners are in talks to combine three of Vista Equity’s tech companies to go public. One, telematics provider Omnitracs, was acquired by Vista Equity from Qualcomm for $800 million in 2013.
Free DoT Report Outlines Autonomous Long-Haul Trucking Adoption
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) recently published a report outlining adoption impacts of higher-level automated driving systems (ADS) in the long-haul trucking industry. The free, 42-page report, Macroeconomic Impacts of Automated Driving Systems in Long-Haul Trucking, focuses on the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Levels 4 and 5 of automation, which do not require a human driver onboard the vehicle, the agency said.
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Location Industry Briefs
Tive Buys UK Shipment and Asset Tracking Company
Tive last week acquired MyTrackingDevices, a shipment and asset tracking company based in London. MyTrackingDevices customers include Lindt, Siemens Healthineers, Rao's Homemade, and other leading enterprises in vaccine distribution, electronics, healthcare, election ballots, and food & beverage, the company said.
Contact: Jim Waters, Tive, jim@tive.com.
FocalPoint Gets 6-Million-Pound Funding to Rollout Positioning Software
United Kingdom-based FocalPoint will use 6 million pounds, in series B funding from venture capital firm Draper Esprit, to roll out its positioning software for drones, wearables and cars, the company said. In August 2020, the company signed a deal with u‑blox to integrate its Supercorrelation technology into its commercial chips.
Alps Alpine Partners with Skyhook for IoT Service
Skyhook said last week that it was selected by Alps Alpine, an electronic components and automotive infotainment systems manufacturer, as its location services provider. Alps Alpine will use the Skyhook’s technology its IoT devices and services.
Contact: Isolde Decker-Lucke, Skyhook, Idecker-lucke@skyhook.com.
CalAmp Signs Deal with Molly Maid, Has 500 Units Installed
CalAmp [CAMP] said last week that cleaning giant Molly Maid has adopted its fleet tracking and asset management product for its franchisees. CalAmp said Molly Maid, throughout the pandemic, has used its iOn units to equip 500 franchise owner vehicles to improve scheduling, routing, navigation and field updates to facilitate appointment coordination and on-time customer service.
Garmin Gets Into Powersports Market
Garmin International [GRMN] is getting into the powersports market with three products: Tread powersport navigator with Group Ride Radio, Garmin PowerSwitch digital switch box, and the BC 40 wireless camera with tube mount. The units allow riders to hop on their side-by-side, ATV, or snowmobile to navigate extreme terrain, the company said.
Contact: Cesar Palacios, Garmin, media.relations@garmin.com.
Telenav Signs Deal With SAIC
Telenav [TNAV] said that SAIC, China’s largest automotive group, has selected the company’s VIVID Nav product for its overseas markets in Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia-New Zealand. VIVID Nav will provide navigation and location-based services for SAIC’s battery-powered electric (BEV) and internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicles in those markets, the company said.
Contact: Amrita Dhar, Telenav, amritad@telenav.com.
Polte Part of DoD Location Project in San Diego
Polte said it has been awarded a subcontract from Deloitte as part of an initiative with the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to develop a 5G-enabled smart warehouse prototype. The project, at the Naval Supply Systems Command (NAVSUP) Naval Base Coronado, calls for Polte to equip the facility with its 5G Massive IoT location technology.
Contact: Christina Gaines, Polte, christina@polte.com
Trimble and VayaVision Partner for Advanced Perception Technology
Trimble [TRMB] and VayaVision, which is owned by LeddarTech, are partnering to bring advanced perception technology to the agriculture, construction and mining markets. The companies will integrate VayaVision's raw data sensor fusion and perception software with Trimble's machine control technology to improve autonomous machine performance (in Lidar, cameras and GNSS), the companies say.
Contact: Lea Ann McNabb, Trimble, LeaAnn_McNabb@trimble.com.
MIX Telematics To Install 6,000 Units in Energy Fleet
MiX Telematics [MIXT] said that Iberdrola will equip its fleet of 6,000 vehicles in Spain, the United Kingdom and North America with the company’s fleet management products, which are delivered as Software as a Service (SaaS. Iberdrola is the largest producer of wind power.
Contact: Melanie Esterhuizen, MiX Telematics, Melanie.esterhuizen@mixtelematics.com.
Is Something Up With Silicon Valley Engineers?
At least one Silicon Valley exec thinks so…
