Trimble Agrees to Purchase PeopleNet Communications

Bidding to expand in the freight transportation and logistics markets, software maker Trimble Navigation Ltd. announced July 20 that it is acquiring privately held PeopleNet Communications Corp., the Minnetonka, Minn., provider of motor carrier on-board computing and mobile communications systems.

No terms were disclosed. But Trimble, which has been on a buying spree lately, said the deal is expected to add to earnings when it closes in the third quarter.

For PeopleNet, its sale amounts to an exit for Norwest Equity Partners, which has owned the company since 2000, according to the website for the Minneapolis investment firm.

“We reached a point in our evolution, and we felt that for PeopleNet to take that next step in terms of expanding internationally with new products and to hit that growth curve, it was time for us to look around,” said Brian McLaughlin, PeopleNet’s chief operating officer.

McLaughlin said that he and Ron Konezny, PeopleNet founder and CEO, and the rest of PeopleNet’s management and personnel are staying on. “We’ll run as an autonomous division of Trimble,” McLaughlin said. “There will be no layoffs. This is not one of those synergy plays where you wring out people.”

Norwest Equity named Konezny to be CEO of PeopleNet in July 2007. He had been COO. In January 2000, PeopleNet disclosed a $25 million investment by Norwest. The investment firm pumped another $2.5 million into PeopleNet in 2002, according to a first-quarter survey on venture capital investments that year from PricewaterhouseCoopers. Norwest did not return calls by press time.

The purchase is Trimble’s fifth acquisition this year.

In June, the Sunnyvale, Calif., company announced it bought Yamei Electronics Technology Co. Ltd., a Chinese maker of anti-theft, GPS monitoring and tracking devices, from Digisec Group of the Cayman Islands. No price was disclosed.

In May, Trimble agreed to buy Finland-based software maker Tekla Corp. in a deal that, when announced, was worth $448.6 million. The same month, Trimble also scooped up privately held MyTopo Inc., Billings, Mont., which is a provider of print and digital maps for outdoor enthusiasts.

Two months earlier, Trimble agreed to buy a signal corrections business that uses the OmniStar satellite navigation system from Fugro NV, a Netherlands provider of geotechnical data.

Trimble said the acquisition of PeopleNet gives it a fuller suite of products to offer to an international customer base.

“PeopleNet is a key step in Trimble’s strategy for addressing the complex regulatory and operational demands of enterprise companies in the transportation and logistics market,” Steven Berglund, Trimble’s president, said in a statement.

“We are confident the acquisition is a great fit,” Konezny said in a statement.

PeopleNet’s results will be reported by Trimble’s Mobile Solutions segment, the buyer said.

Trimble is a provider of global positioning devices. It also supplies laser, optical and inertial technologies along with software for wireless communications.

In the quarter ended April 1, Trimble posted income of $38.9 million, or 32 cents a share, on revenue of $384.3 million. In the same period a year earlier, Trimble earned $28.2 million, or 23 cents a share, on sales of $319 million.

In 2010, Trimble pulled in a profit of $103 million, or 84 cents a share, on revenue of $1.29 billion, compared with 2009 income of $64 million, or 52 cents a share, on sales of $1.13 billion.

PeopleNet was founded in 1994 by Konezny and has carved out a niche in the trucking industry by providing onboard computing and communications devices. Its products are used by about 150,000 truckload, less-than-truckload, private and regional fleets in the United States and Canada, according to Trimble.

PeopleNet’s competitors in various markets include Qualcomm Inc., Xata Corp. and TMW Systems Inc.

PeopleNet announced its newest in-cab computer model, Blu.2, in June, predicting they’d be available in the third quarter of this year. Blu.2 is 65% lighter than the original Blu and starts up 40% faster in cold weather, among other improvements, it said (6-20, p. 16).