Zebra buys cargo software company
Zebra Technologies Corp. announced Monday it agreed to buy California-based Navis Holdings LLC for roughly $145 million cash, making it the company's third major cash acquisition this year.
Vernon Hills-based Zebra, a maker of barcode and radio frequency identification technologies, said the three acquisitions will provide a platform to offer complete service in a fragmented industry.
Navis creates software to manage cargo in the global supply chain. Its primary customers are marine terminal operators, but it also works with consumer goods manufacturers and retailers like Johnson and Johnson, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Coca-Cola Bottling Co.
Zebra CEO Anders Gustafsson said in a conference call Tuesday the company has been in talks with Oakland-based Navis for the last six months and expects the transaction to finalize in late November or early December.
"Navis gives Zebra the ability to deliver more high-value applications to our existing customers in the transportation, distribution and logistics markets," he said.
Gustafsson said Navis's growth potential sweetened the acquisition. While Navis' software systems are used in about 200 ports worldwide, he said, many of the remaining 650 ports do not use automated logistics systems and thus could become future Navis customers.
He also cited independent studies forecasting marine cargo volume to grow 10 percent per year in the near future, which could drive demand for Navis' services.
Zebra recently bought German software developer Proveo AG for $16.3 million. In January it acquired California-based RFID and wireless tracking technology provider WhereNet Corp. for $126 million.
The three acquisitions will benefit Zebra in different ways, Gustafsson said. Navis's software solution will complement Proveo and WhereNet's data acquisition technologies, as well as Zebra's bar coding and RFID products.
Charles Whitchurch, Zebra's chief financial officer, said in the conference call that he expects Navis' sales to reach $60 million in 2007, but that this revenue would not affect Zebra's earnings for 2007 because of the timing of the acquisition.
Financial data is not available for Navis, a privately held company, but Whitchurch described the company as "profitable and strongly cash flow positive."