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InvenSense to Acquire Sensor Nav Companies Trusted Positioning and Movea

July 23, 2014  - By
Image: GPS World

InvenSense, Inc., a provider of intelligent sensor solutions, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Trusted Positioning, Inc. (TPI), a privately held indoor/outdoor tracking company with the vision to provide “Positioning Everywhere.” InvenSense is also acquiring context analysis software company Movea.

TPI’s location tracking technology improves accuracy both indoors and outside by augmenting GNSS and Wi-Fi based location infrastructure. Using inertial sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and pressure sensors in mobile and wearable devices, TPI’s software platform provides continuous and accurate positioning and also solves the difficult problem of alignment between the user and the mobile device. The TPI platform provides complete inertial navigation software solutions for a variety of industries including smartphones, tablets, wearables, in-vehicle navigation, personnel tracking, and machine guidance and control.

“InvenSense shares our passion for ‘positioning everywhere,’ and they have been a strong supporter of the Trusted Positioning team, technology and vision,” said Chris Goodall, Trusted Positioning’s chief executive officer. “We are pleased to be joining the InvenSense family with the goal of making indoor/outdoor positioning ubiquitous. Together with InvenSense we will now have the required resources and investment to mainstream this technology.”

InvenSense has also signed a definitive agreement to acquire Movea, a privately held company that provides software for ultra-low power location, activity tracking, and context sensing. Movea’s products, technology, and IP cover a broad range of signal-processing and data-fusion technology applied to consumer mobile (smartphones and tablets), TV interaction, and wearable sports and fitness applications.

Movea is dedicated to context analysis using both motion and audio sensors to determine, for example, a person’s state/activity, their energy expenditure, their location, and an athlete’s speed and cadence. Movea’s algorithm and software framework expertise is expected to further scale InvenSense’s leadership in motion software and accelerate InvenSense’s “AlwaysOn” low-power solutions for mobile and the Internet of Things.

“With the addition of Movea and TPI, InvenSense achieves a significant milestone as it transitions to a leading provider of intelligent sensor System on Chips (SoC) for the fast growing mobile market. ‘AlwaysOn’ location and activity tracking are essential to enabling contextually aware products and services,” said Behrooz Abdi, president and chief executive officer, InvenSense. “The tight integration of our low-power, high performance, motion and sound sensors, along with TPI’s advanced location tracking software and Movea’s data fusion algorithms, will position us to deliver on this ‘AlwaysOn’ promise.”

In connection with the acquisition of both companies, InvenSense expects to pay approximately $81 million, net of cash assumed, to acquire all of the outstanding shares of capital stock and other equity rights of Movea and Trusted Positioning, Inc. The purchase price will be paid with $6M of InvenSense common stock and the remainder in cash, except that portion attributable to unvested employee stock options will be paid in stock options exercisable for shares of InvenSense’s common stock.

A portion of the cash consideration payable to the stockholders will be placed into escrow pursuant to the terms of the acquisition agreement. The estimated financial impact of the acquisitions upon the future operating results of InvenSense, which is not expected to be significant, will be discussed during the next regularly scheduled quarterly investors analyst conference call planned for July 29.

The boards of directors of InvenSense and the two companies have approved the mergers. The transactions are expected to close by the end of InvenSense’s second quarter, September 30, and remains subject to the satisfaction of regulatory requirements and other customary closing conditions.