Zebra Technologies has acquired WhereNet, a primary supplier of active RFID tags and real time location systems (RTLS), for $126 million.

Zebra is one of the world's largest suppliers of bar code printers and also supplies passive RFID tags and encoders. The WhereNet acquisition is Zebra's first step into the active RFID market.

"For many years, people have tracked products as they move by putting bar code labels on them, and that's been the core of our business," says Zebra executive Philip Gerskovich. "We've extended that in recent years to passive-tag RFID because, for many applications, that will be either an enhancement or a replacement for bar codes. We see this (acquisition) as another step along that way. These are ways that people track goods from one place to another."

Gerskovich said Zebra plans to operate WhereNet as a standalone business for the foreseeable future.

WhereNet, founded in 1997, has more than 150 installations in such applications as parts replenishment, vehicle inventory tracking, truck yard management, marine cargo tracking and work-in-process tracking.