Obviously Garmin® has long teeth ! After Active Captain up to Navionics charts, Garmin® has just announced the purchase of Vesper Marine, specialized in high-end AIS transponders (¹).
Business Wire – Garmin® Ltd, trademark ownerGarmin®, annouced on 3 January 2022 the acquisition of Vesper Marine, AIS solutions manufacturer, VHF and vessel monitoring for the marine industry. This acquisition is expected to bolster Garmin’s industry-leading lineup of marine products and technology, market leader, in order to enhanced situational awareness for boaters.
Business Wire – Garmin® Ltd was founded in 1989 and is currently based in Schaffhausen, in Switzerland, with its head quarter Garmin International Inc. in the United States (Olathe, Kansas). Company, has developed portable GPS for the general public, in all areas of leisure: aviation, automotive, outdoor, recreational boating. From watches to mobile phones, through GPS map and MFDs, Garmin offers an impressive number of devices, including a good part of instruments dedicated to recreational boating.
With nearly 15 years of experience, Vesper Marine, headquartered in Auckland, New Zealand, has developed a range of communication products and solutions for boating and workboats, including the Cortex system, which was recently awarded. Cortex combines state-of-the-art VHF radio with Vesper's unique smartAIS transponder and remote vessel monitoring technology. Vesper's smartAIS transponders incorporate built-in alarms to alert navigators to potential collisions, dragging anchor and man overboard situations. The company also offers mobile apps to monitor, view and manage a Cortex system or smartAIS transponder for iOS and Android devices.
Jarrod Seymour, Vice President of Garmin, said :
Vesper has pioneered a number of innovations in the marine communications space, with recognition across the industry for its emphasis on user-friendly and intuitive interfaces that make it easier to communicate on the water. Together with the Vesper team, we look forward to providing an unmatched portfolio of integrated marine communications products and services to our customers.
In turn, Carl Omundsen, co-founder of Vesper Marine, said :
We are excited to have the support from a marine technology leader like Garmin. This combination will allow Vesper to expand its capabilities and integration into the marine communication market to make an even greater impact in the boating industry.
We wonder where Garmin will stop ? But it seems obvious that there is a concentration of companies here., as was the case a few weeks ago for Navico and C-Map (²).
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(¹) Source : Garmin newsroom
(²) C-Map is the ping-pong ball for industrial groups
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Garmin needs external growth to drive up its share price. This has been in continuous decline since September: several more acquisitions can be expected in the coming months.
The question is more about how they will execute Vesper's integration into their product portfolio.. If we look at what they have done on the marine cartography side, it's not terrible.