Two of the world’s most prominent telematics organisations, Enigma Telematics in the UK and Viasat Group in Italy have joined forces, combining their entities together like some new Power Ranger Zord, creating an organisation that is multi-faceted and has a heavy presence in international territories.
While big names like Vodafone might be making a splash in the industry, it seems other companies are looking to provide equally impressive shows of market dominance. This merger creates a new super-telematics organisation, which will be one to watch over the next couple of years as its industry weight just became a lot heavier.
Ian Keam-George, chief executive of Enigma Telematics, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have joined forces with Viasat. We share the belief that customers’ needs should be at the core of our operations, so the fact that this merger will result in real synergy and bring benefits to customers is really exciting.”
While both companies will be looking to enjoy the benefits of a larger cooperation, they will remain independent in their own markets, with Enigma continuing to operate under the same name in the UK and Viasat Group maintaining its image in Italy. One of the big changes however, will be a combining of resources, which will see increased investment in software and hardware development over the next few years, much of which will come from an expanded R&D facility currently operated by Viasat.
It’s expected that over time, these developments will deliver improved product performance and features for customers. In the mean time however, it will be business as usual for everyone involved.
Italian corporate advisory firm, Nash Advisory, was involved with the merger from early on and its spokesperson, Giovanni Panigada had this to say (via Fleetnews): “The strategy of mergers and acquisitions pursued by Viasat Group mirrors the current context of strong dynamism in the industry as a whole.
“This is illustrated by an acquisition in Spain by TomTom last August, as well as the acquisition of Wabco by Transics of Belgium, of the Brazilian company Sascar by Michelin, of Octotelematics by the Russian group Renova and the joint acquisition by FleetCor Technologies and Summit Partners of UK-based Masternaut, plus the recent takeover bid by Vodafone for Cobra.”
Enigma might be most well known for its telematics hardware, but it’s also recently been part of a criminal case, where its hardware helped track down stolen goods. A large number of shipping containers filled with plant and factory machinery went missing late last year. Fortunately for those that owned the containers’ contents, some of it was fitted with Enigma’s Skyline tracking system, which allowed police to track the hardware to a port in Tanzania, where local authorities detained those involved in its trafficking and made sure that it was returned to the original owners.
