Orolia, a high-technology group specialising in precise positioning, navigation and timing and Digital Angel, an advanced technology company in the field of animal identification and emergency identification solutions, have announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement for Orolia to purchase McMurdo, a Digital Angel unit based in the United Kingdom, for $10 million cash.
Joseph J. Grillo, Digital Angel's Chief Executive Officer and President, commented, “This transaction marks an important step towards focusing Digital Angel on a single core business, simultaneously giving us the ability to pay off our term debt and improve our working capital position. Digital Angel's Board of Directors and management team have made the strategic decision to focus the company on our Animal ID business, Destron Fearing, which we intend to grow both organically and by acquisition going forward.”
Jean-Yves Courtois, Orolia's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “This acquisition represents continued execution of our growth strategy to acquire and build technology businesses in positioning, navigation and timing.” Mr Courtois further went on to say, “The addition of McMurdo to our portfolio of industry leading brands complements our recent acquisition of Kannad, a leader in positioning systems for extreme environments. With the combination of these businesses in our Positioning Systems Division, we believe that Kannad's strong presence in avionics segments and McMurdo's market leadership in location beacons in the maritime industry will provide significant opportunities to leverage distribution channels, build a strong division infrastructure and extend our reach in growth segments for positioning applications.”
