Quickies: Acquisitions news from the break

Welcome back! While some of us were out of the office, others were clearly hard at work and doing more than sipping eggnog. This week, we’ll try to catch up. Acquisitions didn’t seem to slow down one bit as the year rolled over, as a number of companies announced closed or pending mergers: Trimble Navigation Ltd. said it has acquired navigation technology company ALK Technologies for an undisclosed sum. ALK provides vehicle routing and map products to the transportation and logistics industry and is a partner to TMW Systems, which Trimble acquired in October for $335 million. Both of these complement PeopleNet, the commercial vehicle mobile communications firm acquired by Trimble in 2011. I don’t know much about logistics – the science of moving goods from one place to another – but watching UPS, FedEx and DHL negotiate the streets of Andover, MA this past holiday season makes it abundantly clear that there are still significant efficiencies to be gained. Imagine a world where a delivery firm can know what needs to be delivered and when, can create the optimum route taking into account traffic and other changing conditions — and react on the fly as things change, while knowing exactly where each vehicle is at all times. That’s what Trimble is trying to build with its integrated onboard computing and mobile communications offering. Vero Software acquired Sescoi International, maker of the WorkNC 2D to 5-axis NC machining suite. As Bruno Marko, founder Sescoi said in the press release, “Vero’s global distribution, additional development resources and proven technology sharing concept … will [will enable us to ] advance at an even faster pace and continue to provide innovative solutions that boost productivity, bolster competitiveness, reduce costs and improve quality.” Geometric Limited announced that its German subsidiary acquired 100% of 3Cap Technologies GmbH, a 110 person, 7 customer electronics engineering services provider to the automotive industry. 3Cap does embedded systems development, validation and calibration. Like many others in the engineering software world, Geometric clearly sees the use of embedded systems growing in many verticals, not just automotive. This acquisition allows Geometric to broaden its offering and strengthen its position in Europe. The acquisition will cost Geometric €11 million, including a €3.5 million earn-out over a maximum  of 3 years. Given that the announcement includes the fact that 3Cap had revenues close to €11 million in 2012, this is roughly a 1x revenue multiple. Earlier in December, Hexagon signed a definitive agreement to acquire GTA Geoinformatik GmbH, the developer of tridicon, which enables the automatic generation of high-quality, coloured 3D point clouds. So far, tridicon has been used to create virtual 3D city models and building reconstructions, but one can see applicability to other areas, like infrastructure and process plants. GTA also offers technology and services that combine point cloud data with aerial images to create an even richer “image” that can be used for everything from security and infrastructure management to real-time monitoring of traffic and emergency situations. Hexagon did not disclose details of the acquisition but noted that it “will not have any visible impact on Hexagon’s earnings in the short-term.” The publishing company Elsevier announced that it has acquired Knovel, maker of a web-based application that integrates technical information with analytical and search tools. “Knovel’s comprehensive list of content contributors, engineering-specific search, and tools such as interactive graphs, together with Elsevier’s deep engineering content base and global market reach, will allow us to deliver an even more comprehensive and better integrated solution for engineers and engineering students,” said Alexander van Boetzelaer, Managing Director of Elsevier Corporate Markets. “This acquisition will give us the opportunity to provide an enhanced experience for our customers as they work to overcome engineering challenges and improve technical outcomes.” I thought Knovel was a really cool idea — a one-stop for engineering handbooks and technical publications, with tables, graphs and calculations tied to engineering disciplines. Financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed. But the biggest new news recently was probably the acquisition of Geomagic by 3D Systems (recap here) — starting what, for 3D Systems, may be another big year of acquisitions but may just as well be the year that the company finally digests all of the acquisitions it has made over the last 18 months. New CTO Ping Fu has a lot at her disposal to create what CEO Abe Reichental called the company’s “fifth growth initiative”: a comprehensive digital design/scan/print platform. In a side note, Investor’s Business Daily says that 3D Systems was the stock market’s second-best-performing stock in 2012, with its share price rising 271% during the course of the year. Impressive. [In case you’re interested, a cancer treatment company that just became profitable grabbed the #1 spot.] Finally, in case you missed it, Siemens PLM‘s acquisition of LMS received regulatory approval and closed on January 1. Read the Hot Topics posts about it here (post-close) and here (when announced) or check out Siemens’s statement, here.