Acquisition of Magellan
Complete - Company Now Called Thales Navigation.
Paris, France (August 1, 2001) Magellan
Corporation and Navigation Solutions are now part of the Thales
group, following approval by U.S. authorities. Thales and Orbital
Sciences originally announced the acquisition on May 23.
With
this acquisition, Thales bolsters its position in the GPS (Global
Positioning System) equipment and services market, where it already
enjoyed European leadership through subsidiary Thales Navigation
S.A. Satellite navigation systems such as GPS constitute one of the
group’s strategic development objectives, due to the high growth
potential of these markets and broad-based application to other
business segments within Thales.
Thales Navigation Inc.
(formerly Magellan Corporation) and Thales Navigation S.A., along
with their subsidiaries, have been combined to form a new
operational entity, Thales Navigation, headquartered in Santa Clara,
California. Thales Navigation is the world’s third leading company
in this market, with nearly 600 employees and projected revenues of
150 million euros for 2001.
Thales Navigation has the
competitive advantages needed to consolidate its leadership
position, including:
Products and services that span the three
main segments in this market: leisure, professional and automotive
applications (the latter through Nav Sol, a joint subsidiary with
Hertz).
International brand recognition built by Magellan,
Ashtech, DSNP and MLR.
The complementary geographic coverage
of the brands’ distribution and service networks.
From the
outset, Thales Navigation will be deploying a development strategy
designed to expand its range of products and services, while taking
an active role in the development of new GPS and GNSS (Global
Navigation Satellite System) applications. This acquisition
reinforces the position of Thales as an active member of Galileo,
the future European satellite navigation system.
"On both
sides of the Atlantic, we share the same commitment to delivering
quality, innovation and service to our customers," said Henry
Gaillard, chief operating officer and acting CEO of Thales
Navigation. "Our highly motivated, experienced and professional
teams will drive our sustainable growth and profitability."
