Dublin-based telematics company Fleetmatics will soon have a new owner—Verizon. The wireless giant announced the purchase for $2.4 billion that will be a part of expanding Verizon Telematics, a subsidiary that focuses on “fleet management, mobile workforce solutions and IoT,” according to TechCrunch. The purchase is expected to close in Q4 of this year.
The acquisition of Fleetmatics, an SaaS-based provider of services to fleets and companies with mobile workforces, is just one way Verizon is looking to “use its balance sheet to finance investments into newer areas to offset continuing declines in its core, legacy business of basic phone services,” TechCrunch noted. Verizon also hopes to invest in newer areas; to keep margins up; scale up media, advertising and content operations; aim at enterprise mobility in smartphone services; and boost revenue beyond basic network connectivity.
Fleetmatics has 37,000 customers and 737,000 subscribers, and also has customers like Time Warner Cable and DirecTV. The company also provides GPS and other services like location services; driver and car security services; fuel tracking; dispatching; and billing/invoice services to companies with mobile workforces. Smartphone services and enterprise mobility provides a wider consumer base for Verizon to be a go-to source for purchases. There is a growing market, TechCrunch said, for Verizon “to disrupt more traditional providers of services to move things from points A to B. Verizon is buying into the technology used for these services as well, as another way to increase the revenues it makes from enterprises, beyond basic network connectivity.”
Verizon Telematics CEO Andres Irlando told TechCrunch that the deal was done “to build up its telematics services for small and medium businesses.”
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