Shah Capital Partners (SCP) led an investment group to acquire Thales Navigation, a division of Thales, and leader in the consumer, survey, GIS and OEM GPS navigation and positioning markets, in an agreement announced this week.
Thales Navigation has experienced dramatic acceleration in business, specifically a 200 percent consumer revenue growth over the past three years, according to Francois Erceau, general manager of Survey and GIS Business.
GPS technology has grown significantly in this time period among both consumer and commercial users and applications alike. Thales Navigation felt it was necessary to identify an appropriate parent company to allow the company to move forward and grow with further development, said Erceau.
Thales wanted to keep the company in its current shape and form, and be able to have more flexibility and react to the environment more effectively. Shah stepped up to the plate and the deal between Shah and Thales Navigation is expected to close in the third quarter of 2006.
SCP
Shah Capital Partners is a private equity firm that focuses primarily on technology buyouts. Their portfolio of companies include hardware, design services, electronics, design manufacturing.
They are looking to grow companies and grow their value to make them as successful as possible. Shaw already is familiar with Thales Navigation as one of their companies manufactures the server products for Thales Navigation.
As far as changes in Thales Navigation, “The sites will be kept, the people will be kept, and the operation of the company will be looked at in order to make it more efficient,” explained Erceau, which means some changes will be made but nothing too dramatic for now.
The one change will be the company name will be changed to Magellan Navigation, as the Magellan brand is recognized worldwide. That company will remain located in San Dimas, California.
Products from the former Thales Navigation include: Magellan® RoadMate™ series portable car navigation systems, the Magellan eXplorist™ outdoor handheld navigation devices, the Hertz NeverLost® car navigation system and ProMark™, the best-selling single frequency GPS survey product line on the market.
Without the Thales Navigation division, the Thales Group will continue to focus on airborne and military driven core activities as it has always done.
Source: GISCafe
