In a major acquisition that unites two large providers of sensors and thermal imaging equipment, Teledyne, Thousand Oaks, CA, bought FLIR Systems, Wilsonville, OR, in a $8-billion cash-and-stock deal.
According to a report at The Street, the news drove up FLIR’s stock price +20% on Monday, Jan. 4. Under the terms of the agreement, FLIR Systems’ stockholders will receive $28 per share in cash and 0.0718 shares of Teledyne common stock for each FLIR share, which implies a total purchase price of $56 per FLIR share based on Teledyne’s five-day volume weighted average price as of December 31, 2020. The transaction reflects a 40% premium for FLIR stockholders based on FLIR’s 30-day volume weighted average price as of Dec. 31.
Once the deal is completed in mid-2021, the combined operations of the two companies is expected to reach $5 billion. According to investor information at ww.w.flir.com, Flir’s 2020 sales were $1.9 billion and Teledyne had 2020 revenues of $3.1 billion attributed to these market segments: Instrumentation (36%); Digital Imaging (32%); Aerospace & Defense Electronics (19%); and Engineered Systems (13%).
Robert Mehrabian, executive chairman of Teledyne, said in the press release,“At the core of both our companies is proprietary sensor technologies. Our business models are also similar: We each provide sensors, cameras and sensor systems to our customers. However, our technologies and products are uniquely complementary with minimal overlap, having imaging sensors based on different semiconductor technologies for different wavelengths.”
Teledyne is a manufacturer of sophisticated instrumentation, digital imaging products and software, aerospace, satellite communications and defense electronics, and engineered systems. Some of its equipment has ended up in some pretty fascinating application. According to a post on www.theverge.com, the company does quite a bit of work with NASA, and its LIDAR (light detection and ranging) sensor used in autonomous (self-driving vehicles) was also “used in NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission last October, helping to map the surface of the Bennu asteroid so it could collect samples to bring back to Earth.” Teledyne’s operations are primarily located in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and western and northern Europe.
Founded in 1978, FLIR focuses on intelligent sensing solutions for defense and industrial applications. According to information on its website, FLIR strives to use its thermal imaging equipment and other industrial sensors to be “the world’s sixth sense.”