I.D. Systems to acquire Pointer Telocation

I.D. Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: IDSY) announced its acquisition of Pointer Telocation Ltd. (NASDAQ: PNTR; TASE: PNTR) on March 14 in a transaction valued at approximately $140 million.

IDS, a provider of enterprise asset management and Industrial Internet of Things (IoT) technology, will purchase the remaining shares of Pointer, an Israel-based telematics and mobile IoT solutions provider, for $72 million and around 11 million shares of PowerFleet, Inc., according to a release.

The companies will combine under the name of PowerFleet and expect to see a cost savings of $3.5 million in the first 12-18 months of the acquisition.

“We believe this is a transformative acquisition for I.D. Systems and our industry, as it combines our market and product leadership in North America with Pointer’s technology leadership, supply chain acumen and broad international footprint,” IDS CEO Chris Wolfe said.  “The acquisition builds on a two-year strategic working relationship with David and the Pointer team, where we have been co-developing numerous award-winning products. Through our collaboration, it became increasingly evident that our business values and strategy are well aligned on the shared mission of improving our customers’ operations through innovative design, engineering discipline and building industrial-grade solutions.”

With the acquisition, I.D. Systems will have more than 500,000 subscribers, and the “added benefit” of being vertically integrated, unlike others in the market, according to Wolfe.

“By unifying our businesses, we plan to create significant operational, technological and go-to-market synergies, which will enable faster time-to-market of revenue generating new products and features,” he added. “Realizing these product development and delivery opportunities is enhanced by the fact that we both utilize the same tech stack in our development and hosting environments.”

Wolfe and CFO Ned Mavrommatis will lead the combined company with Pointer CEO David Mahlab serving as CEO International and a member of the PowerFleet Board of Directors and Pointer CFO Yaniv Dorani serving as Deputy to CEO International.

“Pointer has built a successful and profitable company in the high-growth telematics industry. We have earned a reputation for technology-rich products, expert technical services, advanced software solutions and innovative IoT mobile solutions, all under a brand that is valued by our customers and the industry for quality and reliability,”  Mahlab said. “The combination of I.D. Systems and Pointer will deliver high-value, technology leading, IoT products globally. By expanding our product offerings and services, we expect to extend our leadership position in the growing mobile IoT and connected vehicle market, increase our penetration in North America, as well as expand our share of the global multi-billion-dollar IoT telematics market.”