I’m at the Hexagon user conference, HxGN LIVE in Las Vegas, and you know the event wouldn’t be complete without an announcement or two or ten. Yesterday, Hexagon announced that it has acquired iLab Sistemas, a Brazilian provider of planning and optimization solutions for agribusiness. The company says iLab is a natural fit with its existing Arvus and Leica Agriculture brands and rounds out its Smart Agriculture Solution.
iLab focuses on sugar and ethanol producers. Its offerings include software optimization tools for planting, harvesting and logistics planning, as well as area and asset management, scenario comparisons, and cost and budget forecasting.
In prepared remarks, Hexagon CEO Ola Rollén said that iLab also “complements the product portfolios of Hexagon brands Leica Geosystems, Sisgraph and Devex in areas such as fleet management, precision agriculture, automation platforms and control room technologies.” Agribusiness didn’t come up in yesterday’s opening keynote, though the combining of technologies from across the portfolio was mentioned often. Mining and Water, both Smart Solutions introduced last year, came up but at HxGN LIVE 2014 the focus seems to be squarely on mining. Hope to learn a lot there. [That photo is of Integraph PP&M’s President Garhard Sallinger on stage during the opening keynote. Much more from him and the other divisional leaders today. Tune in live, if you can, at http://tv.hxgnlive.com/]
Not to be outdone, Trimble said that it acquired MAYBIM, a company that sells Building Information Modeling (BIM) services to mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) contractors with a focus on contractors in the U.S.
Pat Bohle, GM of Trimble’s MEP Division said that MEP contractors are increasingly receiving requests to use BIM on their projects, but need services like MAYBIM’s to ramp up quickly and learn-by-doing.
In both cases, financial terms weren’t announced and the deals appear too small to make meaningful contributions to revenue or costs.
