Nov 29, 2013SATO, a Japan-based provider of automatic identification and data collection (AIDC) solutions using bar-code and RFID technologies, announced this week that it is acquiring Australian RFID company Magellan Technology, the inventor of RFID technology known as Phase Jitter Modulation (PJM). SATO and Magellan have reached a final agreement, and SATO expects to complete its acquisition of Magellan's health-care business, along with all intellectual properties, by early December 2013.
Magellan will cease to exist once the acquisition is complete, and SATO plans to retire the Magellan brand name and begin marketing PJM products under its own brand. In addition, SATO intends to market the PJM products more aggressively in other parts of the world besides Japan and Australia—particularly in the United States and Europe.
"We will market SATO health-care traceability solutions with PJM technology, focusing in the orthopedic implant sector, globally," says SATO spokesperson Daphne Tay. To absorb the acquisition, the company has established SATO Vicinity Pty Ltd., a subsidiary in New South Wales, Australia.
Magellan Technology invented the Phase Jitter Modulation protocol in 1994, and Magellan's 13.56 MHz tags and readers are the only ones that employ PJM as the transmission method between readers and tags. The protocol and command structure, according to Magellan, allows PJM-based RFID systems to be at least 10 times faster and more robust than all other RFID systems. In 2004, Magellan's patented PJM technology became the internationally recognized standard, known as ISO 18000 Part 3 Mode 2.
A number of health-care companies have used Magellan's tags and readers to track implantable medical devices, including Biomet and Zimmer (see Biomet Tags Its Orthopedic Knees and Children's Hospital Boston Joins Others Using RFID to Track Implantables).
More than 80 percent of orthopedic implant kits in Australia are currently tracked via Magellan's tags, according to the company. The firm has developed other health-care solutions as well, such as one enabling hospitals and laboratories to quickly identify hundreds of specimen-carrying glass slides (see Magellan Creates Specimen-Tracking System).
In addition, Magellan's technology has been utilized for other applications, such as tracking diamonds (see RFID Helps Gem Dealers Track the Diamonds They Buy, Cut and Sell), the carcasses of animals killed by hunters (see Queensland Tests RFID to Track Kangaroo Meat) and the reading habits of a magazine's subscribers (see RFID Gives Focus Magazine a Sharper View of Readership).
Recently, SATO became a business partner of Magellan Technology, and began providing PJM RFID solutions in Japan. Thanks to the acquisition, SATO believes it will be the only business to offer proprietary end-to-end RFID technologies incorporating RFID chips and tags, as well as printer-encoders and readers, making it a one-stop solutions provider for the health-care sector.
SATO has been working to beef up its RFID presence worldwide. Earlier this year, the company announced a strategic investment in privately held company Nexgen Packaging, a provider of apparel brand-identification and packaging products (see RFID News Roundup: SATO Acquires Stake in Nexgen Packaging). Nexgen Packaging supplies brand-identification products to both apparel manufacturers and retailers for their private-label programs. The firm focuses its efforts on the design, marketing, manufacturing and distribution of woven and printed labels, as well as heat transfers, graphic tags, price tickets and item-level RFID labels and tags. SATO made the investment, it has said, in order to increase its market presence beyond Japan and into the apparel manufacturing and retail sectors. In April 2013, the company created a new business, SATO RFID Solutions Co., to develop additional RFID products, including tags and labels, primarily for EPC Gen 2 applications. SATO and Nexgen have been working to leverage strategic benefits from each other, such as mutual RFID development and deployment, as well as leveraging SATO's global footprint.
Founded in 1940, SATO operates sales and support offices in more than 20 countries, and is represented globally through a network of partners. For the fiscal year ended Mar. 31, 2013, the company reported revenues of JPY 87,256 million (US$ 1.1 billion).
