Sources inform ''Globes'' that power tools and mechanical and electrical equipment giant Stanley Black & Decker Inc. (NYSE: SWK) is in advanced talks to acquire Wi-Fi active RFID tag AeroScout Ltd. for $200-250 million. A deal will probably be closed within weeks.
AeroScout said in response, "The company does not comment on rumors."
Several recent US government tenders indicate that the real-time location services market AeroScout's business is thriving. The tenders include a $550 million tender by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, published in late 2011, for the installation of real-time RFID-based location systems at its 152 hospitals and 1,400 clinics.
AeroScout CEO Yuval Bar-Gil founded the company in 1999. AeroScout originally developed Bluetooth technology under the name Bluesoft, before switching to radio frequency identification (RFID) technology and changing its name in 2004. The change in technology also involved a change in target market to consumer products and private users.
Aeroscout has raised $85 million to date; its last financing round was in October 2010. Current investors include Intel Capital, Menlo Ventures, Evergreen Venture Partners, Pitango Venture Capital, Star Ventures, Greylock Partners, and Cisco Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: CSCO).
AeroScout develops active real-time location services, which is relevant for any industry that needs to locate employees, tools, customers, or equipment immediately. The company basically invented the market, developing more complex technology that the radio frequency transceiver technology. To provide an optimal location results, the company combines various communications technologies with short-range Wi-Fi radio frequency signals, and sensors. The company's solution is attached to goods or people, and sends a signal that is received by ordinary wireless access points to find the precise location based on software and equipment that the company supplies.
AeroScout's primarily targets the healthcare market. Bar-Gil says that 60% of the company's customers are hospitals, for the monitoring of staff, patients, medical equipment, operating room equipment, and environmental factors which can be critical for medical products, such as temperature. According to IVC, the company had $40 million in sales in 2011.
Power tools company Black & Decker, founded in 1910, merged with Stanley Works Inc., founded in 1843, in 2010, to create a company with a current market cap of $12 billion, $11 billion in annual sales, and 45,000 employees. It is hard to assess the buyer's intentions for AeroScout, with its 200 employees, but there is a reasonable chance that it will try to establish an Israeli R&D center around the company.
Stanley Black & Decker will likely acquire AeroScout through Stanley Healthcare Solutions, or its subsidiary InfoLogix, a partner of AeroScout. It is also possible that the acquisition will be made for more industrial purposes, fields where AeroScout is less active, and where its location technology can be integrated into a range of industrial products made by Black & Decker.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 16, 2012
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2012