SUNNYVALE, Calif.-Shares of @Road Inc. jumped after Trimble Navigation Ltd. said it will acquire its fellow California-based mobile resource management developer for nearly $500 million.
Trimble, which targets businesses and government agencies with location-aware applications, said it was attracted to @Road’s traction in the transportation, distribution, cable, field service and public works sectors. The acquisition complements Trimble’s success in the construction supply, direct store delivery, public safety and utilities industries.
The companies cited a Frost and Sullivan study that predicts the MRM space to grow from $1.2 billion this year to roughly $2.6 billion by 2010.
“@Road has made significant investments in world-class, fault-tolerant and scalable software infrastructure that can support a large increase in subscribers with minimal additional investment,” Trimble said. “This enables Trimble to forego a similar investment and rapidly deploy new applications to serve additional customers.”
Trimble will pay $7.50 a share for all outstanding shares of @Road; investors responded by sending the stock up 51 cents, or more than 7 percent, to $7.22 per share.
Trimble to acquire @Road for $500M
ABOUT AUTHOR
