Business Takeover
CNH acquires GPS specialist Raven
CNH Industrial – the parent company of New Holland, Case IH and Steyr – is acquiring American manufacturer Raven Industries. In the Netherlands, we mainly know Raven as a GPS specialist after the acquisition of SBG Precision Farming in 2014. However, the company is a global leader in all kinds of electronics applications for agriculture.
Monday, June 21, it was announced that CNH Industrial will acquire 100% of the shares of Raven Industries. Both companies are publicly traded and CNH pays $58 per share for them. The acquisition should be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, if the shareholders of Raven and the government also agree.
Electronics Specialist
Raven and CNH have a long relationship. For example, the company from Sioux Falls (South Dakota) supplies electronics for self-propelled sprayers and also control equipment for more machines. Construction of weather balloons started in 1956. The company only really became known in our country when Raven in 2014 the Dutch rtk-gps pioneer SBG from Middenmeer took over† Still, chances are you've worked with Raven technology, which is widely supplied to OEMs. Since 2017, the GPS equipment is also sold as Raven in Europe.
The acquisition will boost CNH's precision farming portfolio, it said in a statement. Because everything will soon be under one roof, the development of this will also be faster, CNH thinks. Raven consists of 1 parts. In addition to precision agriculture, it consists of tarpaulins and an aerospace branch. In its own words, the non-agricultural branches will continue to exist under the CNH flag. In the past fiscal year (to February 3), net sales were $1 million.
Factory GPS
Until now, CNH has always worked closely with Trimble as the primary supplier of GPS equipment on their tractors and machines. More and more was done by ourselves. It remains to be seen whether we will also be able to see Raven's GPS technology in New Holland or Case IH machines in the future. This is not a bad step for the Netherlands.
Just last year, Raven acquired Canadian DOT Technology Corp. that specializes in the development of agricultural robots. It DOT platform consists of a series of autonomous vehicles that can sow, spray and transport grain. There is a good chance that CNH is also very interested in this.
Niels van der Boom
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