Oct 06, 2004Buying its way into the RFID market, diversified industrial company Roper Industries announced today that it will pay close to $600 million to buy TransCore—a long-time provider of RFID and transportation technology and services.
After the deal’s closing, expected by year’s end, TransCore will become a standalone business within Roper, where it will continue to market its products under its own brand names.
Headquartered in Duluth, Ga., Roper has a history of expanding into new markets through acquisitions, with more than 30 transactions completed since its IPO in 1992. The company is currently organized around four separate market-focused operations: Industrial Technology, Energy Systems & Controls, Instrumentation, and Scientific and Industrial Imaging.
Based in Harrisburg, Pa., and currently owned by an investor group led by KRG Capital Partners, the 60-year-old TransCore targets its offerings at the government, transportation and logistics markets. It designs, develops installs and maintains products and services for access control, toll collection and traffic monitoring/control applications (see Automotive RFID Gets Rolling and New Pay-As-You-Go RFID System). The company’s systems have been deployed to monitor border control in four U.S. states, as well as to automate toll payment and traffic management primarily across the U.S. but also in Europe and Asia (see RFID Speeds Border Crossings).
TransCore’s building-access control system has been deployed at the corporate headquarters of Coca Cola and EDS. Its mobile asset-tracking services cover applications for freight brokers, third-party logistics providers, shippers, railroads, marine operators and trucking companies. Transcore’s Amtech Technology comprises readers and tags that can be attached to vehicles, equipment and containers. The technology meets automatic equipment-identification standards issued by the Association of American Railroads, Union Internationale des Chemins de Fer, American Trucking Associations, International Organization for Standardization and the American National Standards Institute. According to the company, its Amtech products are the only products that meet automatic equipment-identification standards worldwide in all transportation market segments.
TransCore says it is currently looking to develop its products for opportunities in homeland security and electronic vehicle registration applications. In March, TransCore acquired satellite-communications firm Vistar Telecommunications (see TransCore Buys Vistar) to enable TransCore to develop new RFID/satellite products to offer end-to-end visibility of shipments and vehicles in commercial and government, as well as provide a single-vendor secure chain-of-custody solution to the U.S. homeland security market.
Under Roper’s ownership, TransCore's senior management team, including president and CEO John Worthington, will continue to lead TransCore, which has 1,800 employees in North America. According to Roper, TransCore is expected reach sales of $365 million in its fiscal year ending January 31, 2005.
