Verizon Communications will acquire Hughes Telematics for $612 million. The deal, subject to an antitrust waiting period and other closing conditions, will expand Verizon’s reach in the automotive and fleet telematics marketplace, the company said. It is expected to be completed in the third quarter.
Verizon will retain Hughes’ management team.
Hughes (HTI) provides connected services for vehicles, including machine-to-machine (M2M) services. Its portfolio of services includes commercial fleet, aftermarket and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) offerings as well products and services for mHealth providers and users.
“We expect M2M and telematics to drive significant growth for Verizon and we're taking an important step forward to accelerate solutions that will unlock more opportunities for existing and new HTI and Verizon customers,” said John Stratton, president of Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “Joining Hughes Telematics’ robust service-delivery platform and suite of applications with our existing assets will create a premier set of capabilities. In powerful combination with Verizon’s global IP network, cloud, mobility and security solutions, Hughes Telematics’ flexible service-delivery platform has the potential to reach beyond the automotive and transportation realm to create new opportunities in mHealth, asset tracking and home automation.”
“This transaction provides Hughes Telematics’ stockholders with a substantial premium over today’s market price of our common stock,” said Jeff Leddy, HTI CEO. “We are proud to join a world-class organization like Verizon which will help us continue to build and expand on our industry-leading services. This combination represents an exciting opportunity to accelerate our innovation of new services and global growth and to bring these services to more customers and industries worldwide.”
