Thales and Barco finalize the acquisition of Barco’s software development unit for maritime safety and surveillance
Stuttgart, GERMANY, 1 September 2008 - Following a competitive bidding process, Thales and Barco today announced the closing of the acquisition of Barco’s software development unit for maritime safety and surveillance.
The agreement covers the sale of the OPSCenter software components for use in the maritime domain, and also includes a license for Barco’s development toolbox for operational display systems. Barco will continue to provide hardware-based visualization solutions for maritime applications.
Barco’s software development unit for maritime safety and surveillance, located in Stuttgart, Germany, focuses on three related business areas serving operational centers that provide surveillance, navigation and other services to ports. These are Maritime Rescue & Coordination Centers, Coastal Surveillance Systems and Vessel Traffic - and Vessel Traffic Management & Information Systems.
For Thales, this acquisition comes in the context of an increasing number of states recognising the need to interconnect both Safety and Surveillance systems in view of managing the entire scope of MSS activity.
“This move represents a key element in Thales’s ambition to further strengthen our position in the growing market of Maritime Safety & Surveillance. The combination of Thales’s proven capability and continued investment in the development and integration of critical information systems combined with Barco’s software development expertise in three core MSS capabilities, is a powerful blend to further penetrate and consolidate Thales’s position in the MSS market”, says Jean-Georges Malcor, Senior-Vice President of Thales and head of the Naval Division.
“We decided to divest these activities as they did not strategically fit into our business model,“ says Carl Peeters, President of Barco’s Security and Monitoring Division. “We are focused on long-term relationships with partners and integrators worldwide and not on working directly with end-users as an application services provider as was the case in maritime safety and surveillance. In the maritime domain, Barco will of course continue to supply LCD displays and rear-projected video walls.”
“We are pleased to have found in Thales a strategic partner for the acquisition of our Stuttgart based MSS business. Thales’s proven expertise in large scale systems integration, along with Barco’s key MSS capabilities and market references will provide the business with a first-class environment for further growth”, concludes Carl Peeters.
As a result of this operation, the 22 Stuttgart-based employees will gain access to Thales’s worldwide base of dual-use technologies and benefit from an established international go-to-market environment.
NOTES EDITORS:
Barco’s three MSS business segments:
- Maritime Rescue & Coordination Centers (MRCC), which are operational centers for the coordination of maritime search and rescue operations and fighting pollution.
- Coastal Surveillance solutions by providing visualization subsystems for nationwide coastal surveillance systems.
- Vessel Traffic Systems (VTS) and Vessel Traffic Management and Information Systems (VTMIS) for operational centers providing surveillance, navigation and other services to ports.
About Thales
Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales’ leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group’s civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of €12.3 billion.
About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with about 3600 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of euro 747 million in 2007.
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