M2M : Machine 2 Machine

Based on all the recent activity taing place in the M2M/ IoT space – one shoudl expect to see more of the cellular carriers trying to acquire vertical application providers. Verizon recently announced the acquisition of Hughes Telematics for ~ $600 million. How will this affect the other / smaller SI’s providers of telematcis solutions on the cellular network ? How will they diffrentiate from a carrier branded offering?

By going vertical verizon may alinate some of the constitutensts that make up for a robust m2m  eco system on the other hand by going vertical verizon provides its end cusotmers a one stop shop for all their needs and gets the Internet of things / M2M market moving/ growing.

Expect more of these in the future.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/2012-06/D9V4CVMG0.htm

We are seeing a trend here where the cellular M2M hardware market is consolidating. This acquisition continues the trend we have seen in the past few months where M2M providers are acquiring companies to become one stop providers of M2M solutions and services.

Novatel Wireless reported Monday that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Enfora for about $64.5 million in a move to enhance its drive into the nascent machine-to-machine (M2M) market.Enfora sells a range of M2M solutions to enterprises, applications service providers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and distributors. The M2M market, predicted to grow at an annual compound rate of more than 22% through 2014 by ABI Research, involves locating radio frequency identification (RFID) technology via remote sensors connected wirelessly. M2M applications are expected to boom as the price of remote sensors drops to the 5-cents-a-device range.

Telular Corporation the leader in alarm and event monitoring solutions and services, today completed the acquisition of SupplyNet Communications, a leading supplier of wireless tank-level monitoring services. Additionally, Telular announced preliminary financials for the fourth quarter and fiscal year ended September 30, 2008.
SupplyNet Communications, based in Schaumburg, Illinois, provides private label and branded tank monitoring solutions for some of the world’s largest petroleum logistics and chemical companies. SupplyNet’s automatic replenishment (ARP) infrastructure enables the wireless monitoring of vital inventory information allowing companies to manage costs while optimizing cash flow with just-in-time delivery. Under the terms of the agreement, Telular will initially pay approximately $3 million in cash at closing. During 2009, the Company expects to generate nearly $6 million in revenues from SupplyNet Communications. As part of the acquisition, John G. Crump, President and Founder of SupplyNet, will join Telular’s management team as VP, M2M Sales and Services.
“The acquisition of SupplyNet is consistent with our strategy to expand Telular’s portfolio of solutions into emerging markets with significant growth potential and recurring revenue streams,” said Joseph Beatty, president and chief executive officer of Telular Corporation. “By combining both our technology and experience, we will be able to introduce wireless ARP solutions to new industrial markets. We have a strong reputation for our existing products and have been providing machine-to-machine solutions (M2M) for many years through our Telguard(R) Digital line of cellular alarm communicators. This acquisition will diversify our revenue stream beyond the security space and into a relatively underpenetrated and burgeoning market. We are very pleased about this exciting growth opportunity and expect this acquisition to be accretive in fiscal 2009.”

Wavecom a provider of M2M Modules and services annouced that it has acquired Anyware tech. This adds software tools and services for rapid development of M2M applications to Wavecom offering…
From the press release –

Anyware Technologies brings to Wavecom a world class-leading Integrated Development Environment (IDE), built on Eclipse(tm), whose ease-of-use will accelerate broad adoption of wireless M2M applications. Anyware’s Java(tm)-based software can be used with all brands of wireless modules and the company will continue to supply to the entire wireless M2M space