Orolia Group, the France-based specialist in critical GPS applications, has entered into an agreement to acquire Techno-Sciences (TSi), a global provider of search and rescue satellite solutions based in Washington DC.
Financial details were not…
Orolia Group, the France-based specialist in critical GPS applications, has entered into an agreement to acquire Techno-Sciences (TSi), a global provider of search and rescue satellite solutions based in Washington DC.
Financial details were not disclosed.
The transaction, which comes seven months after the two companies entered into a strategic partnership, is subject to the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2014.
Founded in 1975, TSi develops satellite ground stations and mission control software that operate within the COSPAS-SARSAT global satellite search and rescue system. It sells these ground systems to national government organisations including NASA and the NOAA in the US.
By acquiring TSi, Orolia claims that it will be the only company in the world capable of supplying a single-vendor, end-to-end COSPAS-SARSAT emergency solution from distress beacons to satellite communications to mission control centres equipped with search and rescue management software.
Orolia is the world’s second largest provider of distress beacons following its acquisitions of McMurdo, Kannad and Sarbe between 2009 and 2011. Indeed, since its formation in 2006, Orolia has undertaken an aggressive expansion strategy, acquiring seven companies in order to gain scale. Its last purchase prior to TSi was in July 2012 when it bought Boatracs, a developer of telematics M2M solutions to the maritime industry.
Commenting on this latest acquisition, Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of Orolia, said: “The acquisition of TSi positions Orolia as the premier supplier of search and rescue products, systems and solutions globally. By combining our market-leading brands, leveraging our common domain expertise and integrating our development efforts, Orolia and TSi will create the world’s leading technology provider for the COSPAS-SARSAT community.”
On completion, TSi will be integrated into Orolia’s positioning, tracking and monitoring division. This unit will account for almost half of the group’s turnover in 2014.
The COSPAS-SARSAT satellite-based search and rescue (SAR) system was established by Canada, France, the United States and the former Soviet Union in 1979. The space segment consists of SAR signal repeaters and processor aboard 8 GEO satellites and 6 LEO polar orbit satellites.
Its successor MEOSAR (Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue) has seen SAR receivers being placed on new GPS, GLONASS and Galileo satellites since October 2012. The demonstration and evaluation phase began in 2013 and will end in early 2016 when it is due to come into operation.
TSi is actively involved in rolling out ground stations for this new system and Orolia stated that MEOSAR will open up the possibility of developing new technologies and services.
