This article was originally published by RFID Update.
May 5, 2006—Savi Technology has agreed to be acquired by defense contractor Lockheed Martin. Savi is a Silicon Valley-based provider of active RFID solutions to the defense and transportation verticals. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but MercuryNews.com reports that a source close to the deal pegs it at around $400 million.
Savi was founded in 1989 around the concept of using RFID to help parents track their wandering children. The company quickly refocused its application of the technology on supply chain tracking when the first Persian Gulf war began the next year. The US Department of Defense awarded Savi a $70 million contract in 1994, and since the company has been the DoD’s leading RFID provider. It has worked with a string of other defense agencies around the world, including those of the UK, Israel, Spain, Denmark, and Australia. The company’s products include a portfolio of active RFID tags, readers, and supporting software platforms that afford complete supply chain visibility solutions to defense organizations as well as those in transportation, rail, ocean port and terminal operation, importing, and third party logistics (3PL). Savi employs about 300 people across its California, London, Johannesburg, Melbourne, Singapore, and Washington D.C. offices, and former US Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge sits on its board of directors. Following is some of the key Savi news over the last year:
- DoD Doubles Active RFID Spend to $425M
- Savi Sees Acceptance Around the Globe
- Tom Ridge Joins Savi Technology Board of Directors
This isn’t the first time the company has been acquired, having already been part of Texas Instruments, who acquired it in 1995, and Raytheon, who acquired it from TI two years later in 1997. In 1999, the current CEO and one of the company’s earliest employees, Vic Verma, worked with Vector Capital to buyout Savi from Raytheon and take the company private and independent anew. Vector became Savi’s largest shareholder.
Acquirer Lockheed Martin is considered the world’s leading defense contractor, competing with the likes of Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon. Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, the mammoth corporation employs roughly 135,000 worldwide and reported revenues of $37.5 billion last year.
Read the announcement