GE Industrial buys Microwave Data Systems
Staff -- Control Engineering, 4/1/2007
GE Industrial, a unit of General Electric, acquired the assets of Rochester, NY-based Microwave Data Systems (MDS), a subsidiary of Moseley Associates. GE called MDS “a world leader in industrial, wireless, and networking solutions,” saying that it offers complementary technology to GE’s Multilin business, part of GE Consumer & Industrial. GE says the move creates growth opportunities for Multilin in its current markets and the $1.3 billion global industrial wireless market segment, expected to grow 15% this year. Purchase price was not disclosed.
MDS employs approximately 275 people who design and manufacture networked high-speed, microwave radios for wireless communication solutions in oil and gas, utility, traffic monitoring, public safety, and other industrial applications. MDS wireless technology, combined with Multilin’s current product lines in protection, metering, control, and automation systems, offers improved asset protection and control through enhanced security, speed, and access of information, even in the most remote and challenging environments, by eliminating the need for wiring, GE says.
“MDS is a highly technical and innovation-based enterprise with a stream of new products planned for launch in '07 and beyond,” said Larry Sollecito, general manager, GE Multilin. “This is exactly the type of business we want in our portfolio.” Sollecito says the combination also opens new markets to serve. “The potential for growth is tremendous,” he said.
Harry Forbes, ARC Advisory Group, says that in the ARC “2006 Industrial Wireless Market Outlook report, MDS was the market share leader in several segments, including industrial wide-area networks (WANs).” Forbes expects MDS to face stronger competition from emerging standardized WAN technologies, like WiMAX and 802.11s, and “I expect them to add more vertically-oriented services to their menu to maintain their strong competitive differentiation.”
MDS is now a wholly-owned GE subsidiary called GE MDS LLC. Roberto Vengoechea, currently GM of Multilin’s instrument transformer business, will lead GE MDS LLC, working with its current leadership team of Richard Nozel, John Geiger, Mike Wagner, and David Rodriguez. Multilin is based in Markham, Ontario, Canada.
View All Blogs
Now Playing:
