Trimble Sells its Unmanned Aircraft System Business to Delair-Tech

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 10, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) announced today that Delair-Tech has acquired its Belgium-based Gatewing Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) engineering and manufacturing business. Delair-Tech is a leading provider of long-range, fixed-wing UAS solutions for industrial inspection and asset management applications headquartered in Toulouse, France. Delair-Tech intends to grow the acquired business as part of its portfolio. Financial terms were not disclosed.

"This transaction is part of our continuing program to tighten our corporate focus," said Ron Bisio, vice president of Trimble's Geospatial Division. "Trimble will remain actively engaged in the market by leveraging its brand-agnostic software technology for a broader range of UAS platforms."

Gatewing has been reported as part of Trimble's Engineering and Construction segment. The divestiture will not have a material impact on either overall or segment financial results.

Strategic Alliances Expand UAS Options

In addition, Trimble has entered into strategic alliances with Delair-Tech and Microdrones of Siegen, Germany. Microdrones is a leading provider of multirotor UAS solutions. Under the agreements, Delair-Tech and Microdrones will become preferred providers of both fixed-wing and multirotor UAS solutions, with Trimble providing software, data processing and deliverables to UAS operators across multiple vertical markets.

"Trimble chose to partner with Delair-Tech and Microdrones to strengthen our UAS portfolio," said Bisio. "Working together, Delair-Tech and Microdrones will deliver industry-leading UAS platforms and Trimble will focus on core software technology for UAS that integrates positioning, remote sensing and photogrammetry. The end goal is to deliver a complete solution to transform work processes and efficiency for our customers."

"We are proud that Trimble selected us to be their fixed-wing UAS solution provider. With the addition of Gatewing to our portfolio, we can provide one of the most innovative and extensive portfolios of long-range, fixed-wing commercial UAS solutions to support Trimble and its distributors," said Michael Delagarde, CEO of Delair-Tech. "The portfolio will continue to provide dedicated end-to-end solutions, from hardware to fully processed aerial data, which can then be turned into actionable business intelligence."

"Microdrones complement the Delair-Tech fixed-wing lineup with one of the most resilient and stable Vertical Take-off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft on the market today. This provides a complete product line of tightly integrated solutions for mapping," said Microdrone's president, Vivien Heriard Dubreuil. "We're excited to support Trimble distributors to enable a one-stop shop for UAS mapping solutions and to enable their global customers to produce exceptional results on every job."

About Delair-Tech

Delair-Tech provides long-range UAV solutions and unique image processing techniques to enable companies to make better decisions. In October 2012, Delair-Tech's DT18 was the first and only UAV in the world certified for Beyond Visual Line-of-Sight (BVLOS) operations. This milestone set the tone for the coming operational standards of long-range UAV. Since then, millions of images have been processed to help inspect and monitor infrastructures from all parts of the world—a testament to the high endurance of Delair-Tech UAV systems—and the company has been tasked with the unique experience of extracting only the most valuable information from the massive amount of generated data. Delair-Tech is headquartered in Toulouse, France. www.delair-tech.com 

About Microdrones

For more than ten years Microdrones stands for robustness, endurance and hard-working engineering. UAS are the company's passion: developing customized, intelligent solutions for various applications, particularly in the industrial sector: aerial inspections of pipelines, monitoring plants or identifing defective solar cell with thermal imaging cameras—all by using GPS navigation. Microdrones has a dedicated team focusing on building the standards for the industrial UAS business around the globe: safe, fast and environmental friendly. More than 1,000 customers worldwide rely on microdrones—everyday the company's engineers, IT specialists, scientific advisors and industry experts are working on finding the best possible solution for them. Microdrones is headquartered in Siegen, Germany. www.microdrones.com

About Trimble

Trimble is transforming the way the world works by delivering products and services that connect the physical and digital worlds. Core technologies in positioning, modeling, connectivity and data analytics enable customers to improve productivity, quality, safety and sustainability. From purpose built products to enterprise lifecycle solutions, Trimble software, hardware and services are transforming a broad range of industries such as agriculture, construction, geospatial and transportation and logistics. For more information about Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB), visit: www.trimble.com.

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