Business technology solutions company Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) will acquire machine vision components and systems company Matrox Imaging in a deal that is said to expand Zebra’s offering in the automation and vision technology solution market space.
Pursuant to the March 15 deal, Zebra will acquire Matrox from Lortron Holding Corporation Ltd. for $875 million in cash.
The filing states that Matrox “offers platform-independent software, software development kits (SDKs), smart cameras, 3D sensors, vision controllers, input/output (I/O) cards, and frame grabbers which are used to capture, inspect, assess, and record from industrial vision systems in factory automation, electronics and pharmaceutical packaging, semiconductor inspection,” among other things. These reportedly allow customers “to lower their cost to manufacture products, improve product quality, and increase compliance and yield.”
Meanwhile, Zebra provides hardware, software, services and solutions to help companies digitize their workflow. Its portfolio includes specialty printing and supplies, barcode scanning, RFID and real-time location systems, intelligent workforce management, and other offerings.
“Customers are increasingly deploying automated solutions to augment their front-line workers, enabling them to focus on more complex, higher value workflows, and machine vision is a key technology to help them get there,” Anders Gustafsson, CEO of Zebra Technologies, said in a press release. “This acquisition enables us to meet our customers’ evolving needs, regardless of where they are on their automation journey from capturing and analyzing data to facilitate decision-making to deploying physical automation solutions to accelerate the production and movement of goods and materials.”
This transaction will expand Zebra’s offering in the machine vision sector to help customers, particularly in the automotive, pharmaceutical, electronics and food & beverage industries. The acquisition will “complement Zebra’s recently launched fixed industrial scanning and machine visions portfolio as well as significantly augment Zebra’s growing expertise in software, machine learning and deep learning.”
“The combination of Matrox Imaging’s technical expertise with the global footprint of Zebra Technologies presents an opportunity for Matrox Imaging to accelerate its long-term strategic plan,” Lorne Trottier, President and Co-Founder of Matrox, said in a statement.
The documents also note that Matrox generates approximately $100 million in sales annually and has a higher profit margin than Zebra.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approval. It is expected to close in 2022.
Zebra’s legal counsel is Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP and its financial advisor is UBS Investment Bank. Matrox’s legal counsel is Stikeman Elliott LLP and its financial advisor is Evercore.
Prior to the announcement, Zebra’s stock was valued at $380.09 on March 14. A week later, after the announcement, it closed at $429.54.Last year, Zebra acquired Adaptive Vision and Fetch Robotics to add to its new fixed industrial scanning and machine vision portfolio.
