Oct 26, 2010Trimble Navigation Ltd., a U.S.-based provider of devices and solutions that employ GPS and other technologies designed to provide users with location and positioning data, has acquired ThingMagic, a manufacturer of EPC Gen 2 RFID embedded and fixed readers and antennas. According to Trimble, the company will use the acquisition to add RFID technology to its portfolio, enabling it to offer a wider range of tracking solutions to its existing worldwide customer base.
Initially, Trimble will focus on RFID-enabled solutions for the mobile resource management (MRM) market, as well as in the construction and utilities sectors. ThingMagic, which will operate as a division of Trimble, will also continue to sell its branded products, as it has in the past. ThingMagic is maintaining its office in Cambridge, Mass., as well as its existing staff of 33 employees, and intends to continue using the same marketing and research and development strategies.
The two companies, says Jürgen Kliem, Trimble's VP of strategy and business development, began working together several years ago, in response to requests from Trimble's customers that had been using Trimble's GPS services on their vehicles, and that wanted an RFID solution for tracking tools stored in those vehicles. Trimble worked with ThingMagic to develop an asset-tracking solution for Trimble's existing MRM customers, and the resulting solution ultimately included ThingMagic's reader modules.
"Our engineering team worked together with ThingMagic's team, and customers liked that way of thinking," Kliem says. Since that time, he notes, the two partners have "exchanged good information on the R&D side, and now can make that integration of information even tighter," as a single company.
ThingMagic will work with its parent company to develop the RFID portion of Trimble's solutions—not only for the MRM market, but also for the construction sector, in which the tracking of tools on multiple building sites is required—says Tom Grant, formerly ThingMagic's chairman and CEO, and now the general manager of Trimble's ThingMagic division.
ThingMagic, Grant indicates, "will continue to operate as we have always operated," providing RFID hardware and integration services to customers across a wide variety of markets, including health care and transportation. "Today, ThingMagic has a significant horizontal plane, and that will continue," he says, describing the markets the RFID division serves. In addition, he adds, Trimble will also help ThingMagic access customers outside of North America.
The growth in sales of RFID hardware and software during the past year (see Sales of EPC RFID Tags, ICs Reach Record Levels) has made the timing for such an acquisition even better, Kliem says, as a growing number of Trimble's customers are showing an interest in RFID-based asset-tracking solutions.
The acquisition of ThingMagic is part of Trimble's strategy to make the company a full-solutions firm, Kliem explains. In line with that goal, Trimble recently purchased several technology companies, including Cengea Solutions, a British Columbian provider of agriculture and forestry software; CTN Data, a farming software company headquartered in Hamilton, Ind.; and Accutest Engineering Solutions, a U.K.-based provider of vehicle diagnostic equipment. According to Kliem, the company's core organizational concept centers on focused divisions, such as construction and MRM, and RFID furthers the firm's ability to be responsive—and to more quickly and efficiently provide solutions that include asset tracking.
