Deere raises stake in XATA

XATA Corp. said today that John Deere Special Technologies Group, a subsidiary of Deere & Co., completed a second equity investment of $5 million in the company. The investment gives Deere a 31% stake in XATA, a Minneapolis-based supplier of onboard information technology for transportation companies. Bill Flies, president & CEO of XATA, said the additional investment by Deere is an “important endorsement

Tim Parry

July 5, 2001

2 min read

Bill Flies, president & CEO of XATA, said the additional investment by Deere is an “important endorsement of our new platform, which is an independent mobile information systems and Web-based enterprise logistics solutions. It provides us with the capital needed to launch, produce and distribute our recently announced XataNet products to larger transportation markets,” Flies noted.

“We are excited about participating in XATA's targeted high-growth, technology-demanding markets and the potential of utilizing their advanced vehicle information technology for our traditional markets,” said Charles Stamp, Jr., president of John Deere Special Technologies Group.

XATA also reported that a one-time charge of about $400,000 to write off its Desktop Dispatch Pro (DDPro) product was recognized in its third quarter, which ended June 30.

“We wrote off DDPro because of its limited value to potential buyers in the truckload sector of the transportation market,” said Flies. “The coincident timing of the Deere investment with the industry's growing appetite for our information systems supports our decision to accelerate our new product rollout for the long-term growth of our company.”