NovAtel Inc., a precise positioning technology company, has acquired privately-held Antcom Corporation (Antcom), located in Torrance, California. Antcom is a communication company that specializes in the design, development and manufacturing of antenna and microwave products for commercial and military customers in the space, ground and avionics telecommunications markets. Under the terms of the agreement, NovAtel will acquire Antcom for US $5.0 million in cash and an additional US $1.0 million in cash subject to Antcom’s achievement of certain financial targets for the calendar year ended December 31, 2007.

“With this acquisition, NovAtel reinforces its commitment to continually broaden our base of precise positioning technology and OEM solutions, giving our worldwide customer base convenient access to an expanded offering of GPS, GNSS and other antenna products,” said Farlin Halsey, Vice President, Corporate Strategy and Alliances. “Through providing immediate access to NovAtel’s customers, dealers and distributors worldwide and through new product applications, we believe we can achieve a significant increase in our total addressable market.”

“The Antcom acquisition represents a significant moment in NovAtel’s history as we expand into multi-site, multi-national business operations,” stated Jon Ladd, NovAtel’s President and CEO. “A key element of NovAtel’s growth strategy is to create strategic partnerships and acquire businesses that have complementary technology, products and provide access to markets. Antcom is not only a profitable and successful antenna company with leading complementary technology and a broad range of customers; Antcom also represents a growth platform for NovAtel, due to the numerous customer, market and technology synergies between our two companies. Together, the NovAtel and Antcom teams will be working to develop these future opportunities with a stronger, combined antenna product roadmap.”

“As one of the founders of Antcom, I am very pleased that our business will continue under the ownership of NovAtel,” said Sean Huynh, Vice President of Antcom. “Our antenna technology and North American customer base aligns very well with NovAtel’s and we share their focus on providing innovative, highly competitive technology with compelling price/performance. The Antcom team is looking forward to joining NovAtel and being able to expedite our product plans and growth targets.”

Antcom will continue to operate in Torrance, California and sell products under the Antcom brand. Antcom will be operating in a business-as-usual fashion and customers and suppliers should expect no changes or disruptions in service or changes in their Antcom contacts.

NovAtel expects Antcom to contribute revenues of US $7.0 – $7.4 million and be marginally accretive at the net income level over the first twelve months of operation.

Source: NovAtel