Telenav Goes Private With Acquisition
V99 Acquires Telenav for $4.80 Per Share
Location pioneer Telenav [TNAV] said it has completed its acquisition by V99 to essentially “go private.”
The company announced its intent to merge with V99 in November, but needed stockholder approval, which it received last week. V99, a Delaware corporation led by Telenav co-founder HP Jin, acquired the company for $4.80 per share in cash, which values it at $241 million
As of last week, Telenav’s stock is no longer traded on any public market.
The company said the decision to go private opens up more opportunities, which they will be announcing in the next few months, said Sanjay Khatri, Telenav’s global head of marketing.
“We're very bullish on the long view of connected car digital services related to both the driving and overall car ownership experiences. As such, going private allows us to focus and make investments that are suited for a longer time horizon that can often be impeded as a publicly traded company,” he said. “We’ll be making more specific announcements related to those activities in the coming months.”
Santa Clara, Calif.-based Telenav, founded in the late 1990s, provides connected car and location-based services. The company’s location platform allows customers to personalize navigation, mapping, location-based advertising and other services.
Earlier this year, Telenav was selected by Xpeng Inc. [XPEV], a smart electric vehicle (EV) company, to provide connected navigation service for Xpeng’s customers in Europe.
Velodyne Replaces Chairman and CMO after Investigation
It’s been a rough month for Velodyne Lidar [VLDR]. Following an internal investigation, the company said this week that it had removed founder and sensor pioneer David Hall as chairman and his wife Marta Thoma Hall as marketing chief.
The action followed an investigation by an audit committee from company’s board of directors, as well as legal counsel, the company said. The investigation reviewed statements and conduct by Hall and his wife, the company said.
“The investigation concluded that Mr. Hall and Ms. Hall each behaved inappropriately with regard to Board and Company processes, and failed to operate with respect, honesty, integrity, and candor in their dealings with [Velodyne] officers and directors,” the company said in a prepared statement.
The board formally censured both people—and directed them both to receive “appropriate remedial training,” the company said. However, they will remain members of the company’s board of directors.
To replace Hall and his wife, the company named Joseph Culkin as board chairman and Sally Frykman as chief marketing officer.
According to Reuters, Marta Hall described the board meeting as “like an ambush” and said it was a surprise that she and her husband were removed.
As Location Business News reported last week, Ford Ford [F] exited its 7.6 percent stake (13.07 million shares) in Velodyne. The company’s stock fell 8 percent on the day of the personnel announcements.
Contact: Drew Hamer, Velodyne Lidar CFO, InvestorRelations@velodyne.com
Google Maps Has Pay for Parking Feature
Google announced last week that its Maps allow for drivers to pay for parking to preclude touching public surfaces during the pandemic.
The company said that pay for parking, for Android, is available now in more than 400 cities in the U.S, (including Boston, Cincinnati, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C, and more) with iOS coming soon.
Google partnered with parking companies Passport and ParkMobile to allow drivers to pay “right from driving navigation in Maps, and avoid touching the meter altogether,” the company said. “Simply tap on the “Pay for Parking” button that appears as you near your destination. Then enter your meter number, the amount of time you want to park for, and tap “Pay.”
The company also announced the ability to pay for transit fares from the Maps app for more than 80 transit agencies worldwide. The new enhancements allows travelers to plan a trip, buy a fare and start riding without having to go to different apps, the company said.
Vodafone Says PPS is Just a Trial Service
Talk about a buzz kill. Last week’s Vodafone announcement that they have partnered with Sapcorda to offer a precise positioning service (PPS) to bring centimeter-level positioning to autonomous vehicles, medical drones and precious cargo was jumping the gun.
At least we now have a name for it: Vodafone Business Precise Positioning Service.
However, company spokesman Simon Gordon said it’s too early to talk major rollout. “Currently, the trials are internal only and don’t involve any of our customers but we are interested in speaking with interested parties,” Gordon said.
However, last week’s press release said that it was tested on the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) platform, with 118 million connections.
Get a Gartner Report with Actility in It…
Actility is in a new Smart Cities development report from Gartner as well as the company’s Location Tracking report.
“In this report, Gartner assesses the maturity of the most relevant technologies and solutions that could help Smart Cities development, clearly identifies cities’ challenges and shares possible options and introduces new concepts into the Smart Cities development equation,” the company said.
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Location Industry Briefs
Company Tests Drones in GNSS Jamming Scenarios
Israel-based infiniDome said it has completed UAS flight trials with GNSS jamming scenarios. The test flight was part of the NA’AMA initiative, a project to test BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) operation and accelerate the adoption of UAS in urban environments, the company said.
The testing showed that infiniDome increased GNSS resiliency by 400 percent in a hostile jamming environment, the company said. In addition, the drone’s GPS receiver overcame jamming scenarios using infiniDome’s GPSdome protection which locked on and maintained the GNSS signals throughout the jamming tests, the company said.
Contact: Kristi Furrer, InfiniDome, kristi@infinidome.com.
Transportation Industry Vet Joins Spireon
Spireon named John Krumheuer president of the company’s Transportation Group. Krumheuer has more than 20 years’ experience in the transportation industry. He will be responsible for growing the company’s FleetLocate business with strategic partnerships with resellers and channel partners, the company said.
Krumheuer, an Army veteran with fleet and trailer experience, was senior vice president of sales for both SmartDrive and Trimble’s PeopleNet.
Contact: Kelsey Duke, Havas Formula, spireon@havasformula.
Telit Offers New GNSS Receiver Module for IoT Trackers
Telit rolled out its SE868SY-D a multi-frequency, high-precision global navigation satellite system (GNSS) receiver module for applications that require high accuracy, fast updates, multi-constellation support and multipath resistance. At just 11x11 mm, the unit is designed for ultra-compact devices and IoT trackers, the company said.
By using both the L1 and L5 bands, the SE868SY-D supplies a significantly higher location accuracy than single-frequency devices — even in high-multipath environments such as urban canyons, the company said. This sub-1-meter precision is a major reason ABI Research expects more than 1 billion multi-frequency GNSS devices to ship annually by 2023, the company said.
Contact: Leslie Hart, Telit, Leslie.Hart@Telit.com.
Shield AI Raises $90 Million in Series C Funding
Shield AI, a defense-technology company using self-driving software, announced it has raised $90 million in a Series C round through equity and debt financing, the company said.
Shield AI will use the funding to help scale and further integrate its self-driving software, Hivemind, into additional platforms across the defense industry, the company said. Hivemind currently runs on Shield AI's Nova-class SUAS to enable indoor-outdoor reconnaissance without GPS or communication links and has been used in combat operations since 2018, the company said.
Comtech Grabs $1.3 Million Contract with Undisclosed Company
Comtech’s Location Technologies group has renewed a $1.3 million contract for maintenance and support “with a Canadian mobile network operator,” the company said.
Comtech is tight-lipped when it comes to naming its partners as indicated by Fred Kornberg, company CEO, in a prepared statement: “Comtech has developed a long-standing relationship with this Canadian carrier and we have become a trusted partner in their core business processes.”