Powerfleet and MiX Telematics Merge, Creating 1.7 Million Subscribers
The combined business revenues total $279 million, including $210 million in recurring SaaS revenue.
Creating a 1.7-million subscriber base, Powerfleet PWFL 0.00%↑ and MiX Telematics MIXT 0.00%↑ announced this week that they will merge to form as a mobile IoT Software-as-a-Service provider. The companies say that the all-stock transaction, expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, will have a combined revenue of $279 million.
After the transaction’s close, the joint entity will be branded as Powerfleet, with that company’s Nasdaq listing. The entity, with more than 1,800 employees, will combine engineering and technology teams.
New Jersey-based Powerfleet believes the deal will create cross-sell and upsell opportunities for its Unity Platform, modular software and AI-driven data solutions to a combined base of 7,500 enterprise customers. For its part, MiX Telematics, a fleet and mobile asset company founded in 1996, has delivered SAAS solutions to 1 million subscribers in more than 120 countries.
"Realizing transformative scale, this transaction with MiX will provide the go-forward company with 1.7 million subscribers, and the ability to sell additive and accelerated AI and data-powered software solutions to a truly global set of customers," said Steve Towe, Powerfleet's CEO, in a statement.
Towe will remain CEO of Powerfleet, with David Wilson serving as CFO. MiX CEO Stefan Joselowitz will retire. A new board of directors will be formed with Michael Brodsky serving as chairman and Ian Jacobs, MiX’s current chairman, joining with another appointment to be named from the company.
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Intergeo 2023 Features Product Rollouts and Deals
BERLIN—The Intergeo 2023 conference here featured a number of geospatial product rollouts and even a few deals. Topcon Positioning Systems and SOCOTEC have announced an agreement for Topcon to provide monitoring technology to SOCOTEC throughout Europe.
The deal includes monitoring technology for infrastructure projects in France, the Netherlands, Spain, and in the United Kingdom, the company said.
SOCOTEC, a testing, inspection and certification (TIC) company with more than 200,000 clients in 26 countries, will employ Topcon robotic total stations from the MS Measuring Station series and several additional geopositioning portfolio resources, the company said. The products will include total stations, GNSS, and third-party geotechnical sensors, which are powered via Delta Link hardware and monitored through its software, the company said.
At Intergeo, Topcon exhibited its Hybrid Positioning system, Delta deformation monitoring solutions, and real-time network correction service, Topnet Live, among others. The company also exhibited its recently unveiled Aptix integration platform as part of its European debut, the company said.
Also at the conference, Quectel Wireless said that Zucchetti Centro Sistemi (ZCS) will integrate the company’s LG69T-AM GNSS module into their robotic lawnmowers. The lawnmowers will feature the ZCS Cloud real-time kinematic (RTK) technology, primarily for larger gardens.
Quectel also announced that, with IoT company MikroElektronika, it has launched the LC29H series RTK Click Boards. The LC29H is a series of dual-band, GNSS modules that are based on the latest L1/L5 receiver that have equivalent accuracy to existing L1/L2 receivers, but with 70 percent less power consumption and 50 percent smaller, the company said.
Intergeo, known for years as a high-precision survey show, has become a showcase for autonomous machinery, Vehicle to Anything (V2X), and particularly, UAVs. China-based DJI Enterprise rolled out its Zenmuse L2 drone lidar, which the company says has expanded range and more accuracy.
In other Intergeo News:
Phase One rolled out its PAS Pana that offers countrywide area mapping. PAS Pana is a seven-camera, wide-field system for aerial mapping
Hexagon Geosystems won the Wichmann Innovations Award at Intergeo. The company won in two categories—hardware and software.
This year’s conference featured 17,000 trade visitors from 112 nations, 571 exhibitors from more than 40 countries, more than 300 speakers and 841 conference participants from 42 countries, according to show organizers.
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Waze Getting Hammered By One-Star Google Reviews
Navigation app Waze has been getting hit by a number of one-star reviews in the Google Play Store, according to autoevolution. One of the catalysts in the falling consumer confidence has been the breaking of dark mode on CarPlay, which happened in August.
The result of the color problems was what one publication called “retina-melting white light” coming from the Waze app, evening during the night. Waze fixed the bug, but it took a month.
Waze, owned by Google GOOG 0.00%↑, has had its best features already bogarted by Google Maps. Some other Waze problems include the app crashing, a faulty interface, planned trips disappearing and bad Android Auto support.
The articles don’t make any assumptions whether Google laying off Waze employees has anything to do with the recent bad ratings. It was not known how many of the company’s 500 or so employees were let go in June.
Location Business News reported, Google planned to merge its Geo staff with the Waze group. At that time, Google, which acquired Waze more than 10 years ago, said it was under pressure to reduce costs and be more productive by merging “overlapping product areas.”
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Other Location News:.
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
Top News:
✔ Blackberry To Split, Plans IPO for Internet of Things Business. “The company is planning to separate its IoT and cybersecurity businesses. The tech company says it will conduct an initial public offering for its IoT business in the first half of its next fiscal year.”
☹ Why 20 Aircraft Went Off Course Over Iraqi Airspace. “Commercial and private jets flying over Iran have been affected by GPS signal spoofing, causing them to veer off course. This is the first time passenger flights have been targeted to such a sophisticated degree.”
🛩 Swarms of Thinking Drones That Need No GPS or Comms to Track and Kill Have Landed. “The V-BATs are being put together by a company called Shield AI. We're talking about machines 9-foot (2.7 meters) long powered by a single rotor in a ducted fan design. They can reach altitudes of as high as 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), and hover for long periods of time.”
🛳 Naval Maritime Autonomy Company Raises $55 Million in Series A Fundraise. “Saronic, a maritime autonomy company focused on surface vessels, announced today a $55 million Series A funding round led by Caffeinated Capital.”
🙂 Skydio Unveils Ability to Remotely Fly X10 Drone from a Browser, Anywhere with 5G Connection. “The solution transcends the limitations of traditional GPS overhead point-to-point flights, allowing flights around buildings and obstacles to gather essential information.”
😦 Hamas Used Drones to Take Out Comms Towers and Ambush Israel, Experts Say.
Maps:
🤨 Time to Abandon Google Maps? Apple's Rival Gets Big Update for More Users. “Many users believe Apple AAPL 0.00%↑ has the biggest chance to become a true competitor in this market, especially as Apple Maps keeps getting substantial improvements.”
😕 Authorities Continue the Anti-Google Maps Offensive, It's All Drivers' Fault. “However, people misuse these apps in horrible ways, sometimes ignoring road signage and causing major traffic disruptions. As a result, drivers make these apps rather redundant, forcing authorities to turn to desperate attempts to prevent blunders and incidents.”
👌 The Number 1 Waze Rival Receives a New Feature That Makes Perfect Sense in 2023. “If you've never heard of it, Flitsmeister is currently the most advanced true Waze alternative. It packs a traffic reporting system similar to the one bundled with Waze and comes with features that make every trip more predictable.”
🗺 Eagle Point Software Announces Partnership with Esri. “Eagle Point Software, creator of the Pinnacle Series learning management system, has announced a partnership with Esri,”
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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
😦 Waymo Expands in San Francisco While Cruise Feels the Heat. “Alphabet subsidiary Waymo is expanding its service area in San Francisco despite protests against robotaxis, while rival Cruise grapples with crashes and other incidents.”
😐 Maybe People Don't Want Self-Driving Cars After All. “J.D. Power and MIT say the public has trust issues with robotaxis and autonomous vehicle systems.”
😏 Even Robots Need Rest: Where Waymos Go To Roost in San Francisco. “These Waymo resting areas—there are approximately a dozen in the city—are oddly quiet.”
🛺 Autonomous Shuttle Service Could Soon Be Coming to Contra Costa County. “South San Francisco startup Glydways is being selected by the Contra Costa Transportation Authority to operate its fleet in the region.”
🚐 Telia Plans 150KM of 5G Transport Corridors for Self-Driving Vehicles.
Financial:
💰 U-blox Reports First Nine Months 2023 Revenue of CHF 436 Million.
💲 CalAmp Reports Inducement Awards Under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5635(c)(4). “The Human Capital Committee of CalAmp’s board of directors granted inducement restricted stock unit awards covering 252,240 shares of common stock to four new non-executive employees.”
✔ CalAmp Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2024 Financial Results.
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
InDrive and MapUp Expand Partnership
Ride-hailing service inDrive and Silicon Valley startup MapUp have expanded their partnership into the U.S. market. MapUp recently installed its toll intelligence service TollGuru in Australia, while inDrive rolled out its first U.S. service in South Florida. By leveraging MapUp’s TollGuru Toll API, inDrive provides South Florida drivers and riders with a transparent view of how toll charges factor into the total cost of every ride, the company said.
Contact: Jamie Hyman, for inDrive, indrive@snowhilladvisors.com, www.indrive.com.
U-blox Rolls Out U-Safe for Autonomous Vehicles
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] has introduced u-safe, a safety solution for vehicle positioning, designed to accelerate the adoption of autonomous vehicles. The product offers Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs an advanced driver automated and assistance systems (ADAS) positioning solution.
Typical use cases include ADAS Level 3 and above applications. The company said it aims to take GNSS localization to a new level by integrating u-safe into ADAS and autonomous driving stacks. The product features the A9 ASIL-B chipset and module, PointSafe.
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www.u-blox.com
Flexcar Partners With OCTO Telematics
OCTO Telematics has partnered with Flexcar in a deal that adds OCTO’s connected vehicle capabilities to Flexcar’s fleet across the United States. Some of the features OCTO will provide are a smartphone application to enable drivers to lock and unlock a vehicle, real-time diagnostics and crash detection/notification, the company said.
Contact: Adriana Zambon, OCTO Telematics, 39 339 399 56 40, adriana.zambon@octotelematics.com, www.octotelematics.com.
Septentrio Partners With SparkFun
Septentrio has partnered with SparkFun Electronics to offer a product that embeds Septentrio’s mosaic-X5 receiver module. The mosaic module is a compact GNSS receiver featuring tri-band positioning.
The module has built-in technology that allows it to be highly resilient to signal interference including jamming and spoofing, the company said. The new SparkFun breakout board enables users to log data as well as control and monitor a receiver via web interface, the company said.
Contact: Septentrio, www.septentrio.com.
Luminar passes Volvo series production test
Luminar Technologies LAZR 0.00%↑ has passed its first Run at Rate production test for Volvo Cars at a manufacturing facility in Monterrey, Mexico. The successful completion of Run at Rate is a requirement for automakers in advance of start of production—and the precursor to the launch of the Volvo EX90 featuring Luminar as standard on every vehicle, the company said. Earlier this month, Volvo completed the first installation of Luminar’s lidar onto a Volvo EX90 manufactured at their Charleston plant.
Contact: Milin Mehta, Luminar, press@luminartech.com, www.luminartech.com.
Sensative and Combain Partner
Sensative and Combain have partnered to offer a indoor/outdoor geolocation solution that leverages AI algorithms and deep learning techniques. Combain uses AI to train an artificial neural network using ground-truth geolocations, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth MAC addresses and signal strength, the company said. The new indoor geolocation service complements Sensative’s LoRaWAN devices’ GPS/Beidou functionality, the company said.
In other company news, Quuppa has partnered with Sensolus for indoor positioning and insights. Sensolous, 250,000 connected assets in the field, concentrates on the industrial manufacturing, transport & logistics, and waste management industries.
Contact: Sensative, www.sensative.com.
VectorNav Technologies Announce Two INS Featuring Enhanced GNSS Receivers
VectorNav Technologies has launched the VN-210-S and VN-310-S, to expand the company’s tactical series of GNSS-aided Inertial Navigation Systems (INS). The VN-210-S GNSS/INS combines VectorNav’s tactical-grade IMU comprised of a 3-axis gyroscope, accelerometer, and magnetometer with an all-new triple-frequency GNSS receiver, the company said.
The VN-310-S Dual GNSS/INS leverages VectorNav’s tactical-grade IMU and integrates two 448-channel GNSS receivers to enable GNSS-compassing for accurate heading estimations in stationary and low-dynamic operations, the company said.
Contact: VectorNav, www.vectornav.com.
Trimble Launches New IonoGuard Technology
Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ has launched IonoGuard to mitigate ionospheric disruptions in positioning and navigation by minimizing performance impacts caused by scintillation or signal noise, the company said. Available as a downloadable firmware update for Trimble GNSS receivers using the company’s ProPoint GNSS positioning engine, IonoGuard provides positioning performance in challenging environments, the company said. This will minimize the probability of a complete loss of GNSS signals and improve the quality of the signals’ accuracy and integrity, the company said.
Contact: Eric Harris, Trimble, (408) 481-7808, eric_harris@trimble.com, www.trimble.com
Maxtena Rolls Out GNSS Antenna
Maxtena has launched its M10HCT-TNC antenna that offers GNSS reception covering all L1/L2/L5 GPS, Galileo, Glonass, and Beidou bands, including L-Band correction. The antenna is designed to meet MIL-STD-810 requirements, the company said.
The antenna offers axial ratio, ensuring multi-path error is mitigated, the company said.
Contact: Loubna Benchekroun, loubna.benchekroun@maxtena.com, www.maxtena.com.
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OptiTrack Introduces Motive 3.1 Software
OptiTrack has released Motive 3.1, a version of its OptiTrack motion capture cameras, as well as Cinepuck video camera tracking tool. The updated solution’s sensor fusion process combines marker and inertial measurement unit (IMU) tracking, the company said. It is robust against difficult tracking solutions as it supports full 6 Degrees of Freedom tracking with only a single marker data, the company said.
Contact: Kim Brown, OptiTrack, (503) 850-2454, pr@optitrack.com, www.optitrack.com.
Smart Eye's AIS wins 2023 AutoTech Breakthrough Award
Smart Eye has announced that its AIS driver monitoring system for fleets has been named the “Fleet Management Solution of the Year” in the 2023 AutoTech Breakthrough Awards program. Smart Eye's AIS, a hardware and software DMS, is designed for fleet aftermarket installation.
The system consists of a standalone camera unit and an Electronic Control Unit (ECU) with wireless connectivity, integrating with fleet management systems, the company said. In September 2023, Smart Eye announced the integration of AIS with Geotab's fleet management platform, making AIS available on the Geotab Marketplace.
Contact: Gabi Zijderveld, Smart Eye, gabi.zijderveld@smarteye.ai, www.smarteye.se/investors.
Carbyne's AI-Powered Tech Enhances 9-1-1 Emergency Response
Carbyne has announced that Provo, Utah-based Metro Emergency Communications is using its Carbyne Universe platform, which is a 911 call management solution. The platform allows call takers to receive precise location data, see live video, chat via text and gather other valuable information from emergency callers, the company said. Carbyne enables public safety agencies to have better situational awareness and quickly and accurately assess and respond to incidents, the company said.
Contact: Carbyne, www.carbyne.com
OGC and IDSA Sign MOU
The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the International Data Spaces Association (IDSA) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). The MOU outlines who the entities will work together to create and develop standards for data spaces, OGC said. The goal is to ensure sovereign, interoperable and trusted data sharing, the consortium said.
Contact: OGC, info@ogc.org.
Samsara Recognised as an Approved Supplier on New Public Sector Framework
Samsara IOT 0.00%↑ has been named an approved supplier on the New Kent County Council Telematics and Associated Services framework agreement. The new framework is free for all United Kingdom local government authorities, the NHS and NHS trusts, central government departments, housing associations, third sector organisations and publicly owned private companies.
Contact: Samuel Hall, Samsara, sam.hall@samsara.com, www.samsara.com/uk.
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U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced the appointment of Sean McDevitt to serve on the Board of the First Responder Network Authority (FirstNet Authority).
Ericsson ERIC 0.00%↑ has appointed Chris Houghton as COO and Åsa Tamsons will assume the role of head of Business Area Enterprise Wireless Solutions.
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