Last week, Verizon, the largest US mobile operator, acquired Yahoo’s core business (Internet business, e-mail service, and Yahoo brand) for US$4.83 billion in cash. After a few days, the company announced that it will acquire Feetmatics, a supplier of GPS vehicle tracking systems, for US$2.4 billion.
Verizon officials revealed that the company will acquire Fleetmatics at a cash price of $60 per share, which is a premium of about 40% over the latter's closing price on Friday. The transaction is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year. After the transaction, Fleetmatics will become part of Verizon's subsidiary Verizon Telematics. Verizon Telematics is involved in areas including fleet management, mobile office solutions and the Internet of Things.
In fact, the reason why Verizon initiated external mergers and acquisitions in the near future is due to the lack of growth in the mobile phone business, and the company’s current goal is to find more devices and applications that can connect to its mobile network.
It is understood that Fleetmatics is located in Dublin, the capital of Ireland, and has offices in Waltham, Massachusetts, North America. The company’s products now include software that displays fleet locations, fuel usage, speed, mileage, and other data. Can help companies track and analyze car and driver data.
In the fourth quarter results released earlier this year, Fleetmatics reported revenue of $78-80 million for the quarter, and this year's revenue is expected to be in the range of $3.42-.46 billion.