Zebra Technologies acquires Navis, a provider of tracking software

Acquisitions of Navis and Proveo continue Zebra's expansion beyond bar code printing.

By Corinne Kator, Associate Editor -- Modern Materials Handling, 10/16/2007

Zebra Technologies, the leading company in the bar code printer market, yesterday announced an agreement to acquire Navis Holdings for approximately $145 million. Navis specializes in software systems for dock and yard management, cargo and container tracking, and mobile asset management.

The Navis acquisition follows Zebra’s January acquisition of WhereNet, a company that provides active RFID tags and other hardware for real time location systems. Technologies from the two companies are complementary, say Zebra executives: in many cases, WhereNet hardware provides data for Navis software.

“Zebra is trying to break the mold. They don’t want to be a printing company; they want to be a tracking company,” says Andrew Nathanson of research firm Venture Development Corp. And considering the many electronic technologies that are now competing with paper bar codes, he adds, it’s wise of Zebra’s management to expand the business beyond bar code printers.

Proveo acquisition

In related news, Zebra also announced its acquisition of the German company Proveo for $16.3 million. Proveo uses GPS and other technologies to track ground support vehicles at airports. Zebra executives say they plan to expand the use of Proveo’s technology into manufacturing and distribution environments.

“Proveo adds GPS tracking technology to complete the continuum of data acquisition technologies for Zebra,” says Zebra CEO Anders Gustafsson. “This range now extends from bar codes and passive RFID for item, case and pallet tracking; to active RFID and WiFi for closed-loop, real time location systems; and finally to GPS for the movement of vehicles over a wide area.”

Adds Philip Gerskovich, Zebra senior vice president for corporate development, “We believe that helping customers move assets is really what it’s all about—and to track and locate those assets. That’s the area we’re interested in as a company. That’s what we’ve been doing for years with bar codes, and we see these new technologies as adjuncts to help us do that.”

The executives say Zebra plans to integrate WhereNet, Navis and Proveo into a single business unit and to use Navis’s large, global customer base to expand the market for Zebra’s other technologies.