Kirkland, WA, July 28, 2011 – INRIX, Inc., a leading international provider of real-time traffic information and connected driving services, announced it has extended an offer to ITIS Holdings plc and its shareholders to acquire the company for approximately $60 million (£37 million).
“Automakers, mobile companies and other customers are increasingly demanding global traffic and connected driving solutions,” said Bryan Mistele, president and CEO of INRIX. “ITIS is a strategic investment that expands our geographic reach, technical expertise and suite of market leading technologies to offer customers the best traffic information, more cost-effectively and in more markets.”
The proposed acquisition grows INRIX’s business exponentially in several areas including:
• Geographic & Market Reach: INRIX would extend its global footprint into 8 new markets including Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Singapore and Russia – better coverage in markets like the U.K. and Germany providing customers with coverage across 30 countries. Through ITIS’ TrafficLink subsidiary, INRIX would deliver daily traffic broadcasts to millions U.K. listeners across the entire BBC local radio network, major commercial radio stations nationwide, ITV and Sky News.
• Customers & Revenues: INRIX would add 70 customers and $27M in annual revenue across similar automotive, mobile, public sector and media businesses. Key new customers and partners include Nissan, Telefonica, Vodafone and O2. The proposed deal also would expand INRIX’s role with existing customers including Toyota, TomTom and TeleNav.
• Increased Technical Expertise. INRIX would gain 155 new employees with technical expertise in cellular network data collection, traffic incident information, RDS-TMC and digital radio data broadcasting, interactive-voice response systems and multi-modal routing to better serve its rapidly expanding customer base. As the leading Cellular Floating Vehicle Data (CFVD) network in production in the world, ITIS CFVD would add 20 million connected devices to INRIX’s crowd-sourced traffic network and accelerate the introduction of traffic services in emerging markets. Automakers benefit from INRIX’s increased ability to meet their short-term need for RDS and DAB-based broadcast traffic delivery methods as they transition toward fully connected solutions. Lastly, ITIS’ traffic operations data center helps INRIX further scale the company’s international expansion.
Improved Competiveness in the Global Marketplace
Through the acquisition, INRIX is uniquely positioned to benefit from the convergence of automotive, mobile and public sector efforts to leverage the latest smart devices, data analytics and connectivity technologies for improving how the world’s one billion drivers travel from place to place. As the market for traffic and travel information has moved from being highly fragmented and country specific to one where customers sought and have found global providers to support global technology standards in the vehicle, INRIX’s proposed acquisition of ITIS provides the company with additional scale to compete with much larger competitors. As a result, INRIX would offer customers the best real-time, predictive and historical traffic information available for 30 countries, sourced from the largest traffic network in the world and delivered using an unrivaled set of standards and patented technologies.
Pending approval by ITIS shareholders, the deal is expected to close in late August 2011
