NextNav To Go Public With SPAC at $1.2 Billion Valuation
GPS Company Pioneered 3D Geolocation
McLean, Va.-based NextNav said it is merging with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) that would take the 3D GPS company public at a $1.2 billion valuation.
NextNav and SPAC company Spartacus Acquisition Corp. [TMTS] say as much as $408 million from the merger will be used to build the next generation GPS platform, expand products that are deployed to 4,400 cities and expand a land-based radio positioning and timing network. The $408 million includes $203 million in cash held in trust and the $205 million from PIPE financing. PIPE investors include Koch Strategic Platforms and funds managed by Fortress Investment Group, among others.
While both the NextNav and Spartacus boards have approved the proposed transaction, the deal is expected to be completed in the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter of 2021, the companies say. The company will be listed on Nasdaq under the NN and NNW ticker symbols.
Gary Parsons, former Sirius XM Radio board chairman, will continue to lead NextNav’s board. Peter Aquino, Spartacus chairman and CEO, will also join NextNav’s board of directors. Ganesh Pattabiraman, NextNav co-founder, CEO and president of NextNav, will continue in that role, the company said. Other company senior executives will continue to be co-founder, Arun Raghupathy, as senior vice president of engineering; Chris Gates as CFO; and David Knutson as senior vice president of network operations.
Key Takeaways:
NextNav, founded in 2007, owns nationwide licenses for 2.4 billion MHz-PoPs of 900 MHz spectrum.
Parsons, in a prepared statement, said that NextNav’s rise, with more than 100 patents, mirrors the creation of satellite radio.
NextNav has two services, Pinnacle (altitude-only) and TerraPoiNT (3D position, navigation and timing capabilities).
Customers include AT&T FirstNet, Motorola Mobility, Gimbal, Epic Games, Joby Aviation.
NVIDIA To Acquire DeepMap for Autonomous Vehicles
NVIDIA Corp. [NVDA] announced they had agreed to acquire DeepMap, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that is focused on the autonomous vehicle mapping market.
The deal’s financial details were not disclosed, but NVIDIA said that it is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
“DeepMap’s technology will bolster the mapping and localization capabilities available on NVIDIA DRIVE, ensuring autonomous vehicles always know precisely where they are and where they’re going,” said NVIDIA’s Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive, in a company blog.
DeepMap was founded in 2016 by James Wu and Mark Wheeler, veterans of Google, Apple and Baidu, among other companies. The company, with offices in in Beijing and Guangzhou, China, has investors that include Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, GSR Ventures, Generation, Robert Bosch Venture Capital and NVIDIA.
DeepMap recently launched a crowdsourced mapping service called RoadMemory (see above video). The service allows automakers to accelerate the creation and deployment of large-scale digital maps through data collected from their own fleets of passenger vehicles and trucks, the company said.
Contact: Calisa Cole, DeepMap, calisacole@deepmap.ai, www.deepmap.ai.
Comtech Investor Sends Board of Directors Brutal Letter
A shareholder of Comtech Telecommunications Corp. [CMTL] says the location company has been undervalued in public markets because of “poor corporate governance, a history of capital misallocation, and a lack of executive succession planning.”
In a June 14 letter to Comtech’s board of directors, Outerbridge Capital Management’s Rory Wallace, chief investment officer, said while the company continues to be a market leader, it could capitalize on such existing markets as 911 call routing infrastructure (NG911), among other areas. “Outerbridge believes that the served addressable market for Comtech from the NG911 opportunity alone could reach into the billions of dollars,” Wallace said in the letter.
Comtech, in a press release, confirmed it had received the letter to its board of directors. “Comtech values feedback and is always open to hearing from its shareholders,” the company said.
One of the larger industry companies, Comtech’s Location Technologies unit this month was awarded its first international 5G location services contract with a tier-one mobile network operator in Australia.
Contact: Rory Wallace, Outerbridge Capital Management, (347) 493-0350,
rory@outerbridgecapital.com; Michael Porcelain, Comtech, (631) 962-7000
info@comtechtel.com.
Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com.
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🤞 GPS III Launch Will Provide Global M-Code. Lockheed Martin [LMT] satellite will have encrypted “M code” for military users.
👏 Uberall raises $115M, acquires MomentFeed to scale up its location marketing services. “Still, there remain a lot of gaps in how location information links up with accurate information, and so today a company that’s made it its business to address that is announcing some funding as it scales up its service.”
🤷♂️ Apple added beautiful 3D details to Maps, but it still can’t get me out of this forest. “Without a cellular signal or Wi-Fi, Apple Maps turns into a brick — you can’t search for locations, find routes, or do anything useful. This is, to put it lightly, a bit of a problem for a navigation app that’s been around for eight years.”
✔ Self-driving Waymo trucks to haul loads between Houston and Fort Worth. Maybe this is where it all starts to drive autonomous transportation…or is it?
👍 Trimble To Sell Iron Solutions Business To Randall-Reilly; Financial Terms Not Disclosed.
😊 PassTime partnership with Sky Monitor GPS Americas opens path into new markets. “Sky Monitor GPS will bring PassTime asset tracking [products] to a variety of new segments, including RV, powersports, construction, medical devices and others.”
👌 Inmarsat revenues dip; wins Skylo IoT connectivity. “Palo Alto-based Skylo cites users receiving continuous coverage to send and receive critical two-way messaging, alerts, and continuously transmit sensor data. For example, this could include location data, soil moisture, soil pH and temperature levels.”
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com.
Precise Global Positioning Solution for Mass Market
What if you can determine the side of the road a passenger is waiting for a taxi or pinpoint the precise location a hiker on a trail? Businesses and services across industries increasingly need more accurate positioning of devices and assets to deliver better experiences, from ridesharing and assisted driving functions to location-based games and fitness tracking. HERE Technologies offers a High Definition Global Navigation Satellite System (HD GNSS) Positioning service that enables mass market devices to achieve sub-meter accuracy across the globe.
Contact: Divya Mehra, HERE, divya.mehra@here.com, www.here.com/platform/tracking-positioning-solutions/positioning.
Mapbox and Ookla Launch Ookla for Good Global Performance Map
Mapbox and Ookla recently launched Ookla for Good Global Performance map. The map allows researchers, policymakers, journalists and the public to achieve unprecedented access to global broadband performance data to enable better decisionmaking, according to a Mapbox blog.
The map leverages the partnership between Mapbox and Ookla to combine Ookla’s Open Datasets with the scalable processing power of Mapbox Tiling Service (MTS) and the map rendering capability of GLJS v2, the blog said.
Contact: Ookla, opendata@ookla.com, www.ookla.com.
Spireon Relaunches LoJack Brand, Gets Tracking Contract
Spireon has rebranded its franchise dealer product from Kahu to LoJack. The relaunch expands the LoJack offering to bring the venerable brand to dealerships, the company said. In March, Spireon purchased the U.S. LoJack stolen recovery business from CalAmp [CAMP]. In May, Spireon's GPS platform helped the Chapman BMW dealership recover a 2021 BMW M8 despite it having crossed the border to Mexico before it was reported missing, the company said.
In other company news, Estes Express Lines, the largest privately owned freight shipping company in North America, announced today they are partnering to deploy Spireon's FleetLocate trailer management product across Estes' fleet of nearly 40,000 trailers, containers, and converter dollies.
Contact: Spireon, https://www.spireon.com.
TomTom Rolls Out New Satnav For Professional Drivers
TomTom [TOM2] announced its TomTom GO Expert for professional truck, van and bus drivers. The unit has a 7-Inch high-definition (HD) touchscreen display and a new processor that is four times faster than the company’s previous satnavs.
TomTom’s maps include the latest ADR Tunnel Codes, UN Class restrictions and City Ban routing, the company said. The unit also features maps that can be updated on a GO Expert via Wi-FI, the company said.
In other company news, TomTom and GreenMile, a logistics software company, announced a new multiyear agreement. TomTom’s Routing API will enable GreenMile’s customers to find optimal routes for their fleets based on real-time traffic conditions, tolls, vehicle restrictions and other variables, the company said.
Contact: TomTom, tomtom.pr@tomtom.com, www.tomtom.com.
New Asset Tracker Update
Digital Matter, which manufactures GPS and IoT hardware, said it updated its LoRaWAN radio stack to include support for the AS923-4 region. Digital Matter's first device to support AS923-4 is the Yabby Edge, the company's latest indoor/outdoor asset tracker featuring Semtech's LoRa Edge asset management platform.
Location data can be forwarded to a customer’s platform or system for simple integration and device settings can be configured to fit any IoT asset tracking application, the company said.
Luokong Not a Commie Company Anymore
Luokung Technology Corp. [LKCO] says that the U.S. Defense Department has removed the designation that marked the company a “Communist Chinese Military Company.” In addition, the LBS company is no longer subject to Trump-era restrictions on its shares trading on Nasdaq and in other markets.
Contact: Jay Yu, Luokung, 861053274727, ir@luokung.com, www.luokung.com.
BT Technologies and GTX Sign Marketing Agreement
BT Technologies [GTCH] and GTX Corp. [GTXO], which makes wearable GPS human and asset tracking systems, have signed a marketing agreement for intellectual property and products. GTX is known for its patented GPS SmartSole, which the company says is “Dr. Scholl’s meets LoJack.”
Contact: Nelson Riddle, 447785364100, NSRiddle@GTXCorp.com, www.gtxcorp.com.
Inpixon Rolls Out Asset Tag With 300-Meter Range
Inpixon [INPX] rolled out its Inpixon Asset Tag for long-range, real-time location system (RTLS) asset tracking. Suitable for indoor and/or outdoor use, the Inpixon Asset Tag is designed to track hospital equipment, tools, vehicles, robots, dangerous or sensitive materials, mobile storage compartments and maintenance yard equipment.
The tag can achieve up to 300 meters in range with one-meter location precision, the company said.
Contact: Inpixion, marketing@inpixon.com, inpixon.com/contact-us.