Feb/March 2007

Trimble, one of America's long-standing names in wireless technologies and applications, has taken a major step into mobile workforce management systems by acquiring @Road, a US-based leader in this field, in a deal valuing the company at $491 million.

Trimble is possibly best known in the UK for its presence in the satellite communications market, but in fact has a very wide portfolio of activities in fields such as surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping, in which it offers both hardware and standard or bespoke software solutions.

@Road has thousands of US-based customers, and in 2005 it bought into the UK by acquiring Vidus, a mobile workforce specialist previously spun out of the BT fold, which concentrated on fairly large-scale operations. This was later renamed @Road, and now offers a range of solutions based on the @Road group portfolio.