BARCO Strengthens Position ATC Control Market by Acquiring Germany-based Orthogon
Kortrijk - BARCO has signed an agreement to acquire Germany-based Orthogon, AG to further strengthen its market position in Air Traffic Control (ATC). Today, Orthogon is a renowned software components player in the ATC market. Through this acquisition, Barco extends its professional offer with software components and associated services in the ATC market. Through Orthogon’s complementary technologies and products, BARCO will be able to improve its market position and widen its product offering for both ATC and Command & Control applications.
By its growing presence in Germany, and building further on its recent successes BARCO reinforces its commitment and contribution to the ATC market. It is clear that the acquisition of Orthogon is fully in line with the evolution of BARCO growth in strategic activities for the future.The contract enlarges the market offering of BARCO by extending the existing product offering from a hardware based product portfolio to software components and associated services. Hence, this strategic acquisition will further strengthen the leading position BARCO already has in the ATC market today.Orthogon AG, headquartered in Bremen, Germany is an unlisted privately owned stock corporation (AG), founded in 1987. The company mainly develops graphical user inter software for mission critical applications. All of its software developments result in re-usable standard software components, which can be easily plugged in the application software of the user or system integrator. For example, Orthogon's leading edge software technology has made the ODS Toolbox a de-facto standard in the ATC industry. The ODS Toolbox is being used in almost all Western European ATC projects and has been chosen by worldwide ATC systems integrators. In Europe, Orthogon has established a market leader position in ATC domain, and has offices in Germany (Bremen, Stuttgart and Frankfurt) and the US (Atlantic City, New Jersey). Orthogon also has its own representatives in France and Belgium. In 2001, Orthogon AG realized a turnover of 9.2 Mio EUR and employed 82 people. The company is profitable.All Orthogon European and US associates, including the current management team, will remain in place. Orthogon will be integrated into the Command & Control Business Unit. The Acquisition has been achieved through a mix of cash and BARCO share options. The amount remains undisclosed.
