Orolia to acquire Techno Sciences
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and approvals, including approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) which is expected to occur in the second quarter of 2014. Through this acquisition, Orolia will be the only company 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.
“The acquisition of TSi positions Orolia as the premier supplier of search and rescue products, systems and solutions globally,” said Jean-Yves Courtois, CEO of the Orolia Group. “TSi has established itself as a leader in the COSPAS-SARSAT search and rescue market for the past 25 years with compelling products, advanced technologies and in-depth industry knowledge. 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.”
With the next generation COSPAS-SARSAT solution, MEOSAR (Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue), on the horizon, additional opportunities for Orolia innovation and industry leadership arise. TSI’s active involvement in the development and implementation of MEOSAR provides technological synergies that can further enhance the search and rescue process.
“The world of search and rescue will benefit greatly from innovations in MEOSAR – reducing response times and improving location precision to save more lives” added Courtois. “MEOSAR’s advanced technologies can accurately detect and locate a distress beacon signal almost instantaneously instead of taking up to 30 minutes in the worst case today.”
By combining TSI’s satellite communications infrastructure and emergency response software with Orolia’s proven safety and monitoring products, Orolia will be able to provide companies across various vertical markets with a comprehensive eco-system of search and rescue solutions. These joint solutions will enable critical situations to be analysed more thoroughly, decisions to be made more quickly and emergency operations to be streamlined more efficiently.
“Orolia’s strong product portfolio coupled with TSi’s turnkey solutions reinforces the position of Orolia as the world leader in the emergency response market and in the Maritime Domain Awareness sector,” said Jean-Luc Abaziou, CEO of TSi. “We are very pleased with this agreement – it enables us to offer our customers the broadest set of emergency solutions available in the industry today.”
Orolia is a high-tech group providing business solutions and services based on advanced positioning, navigation, timing, sensing, information and communications technologies. Its headquarters are located in Les Ulis, (France)with main offices in Basingstoke and Portsmouth. With a team of 40 employees, TSi has a prominent list of customers in Asia, Europe, Africa and the United States (including NOAA, NASA and the US Navy).
Key terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
