In a rather low key press release Hexagon announced they had purchased a 25% interest in Blom ASA – one of the leading European geospatial service providers. Hexagon CEO Olla Rollen stated that data is very important to their customers, especially Intergraph.
It will be interesting to see how this is positioned next week at the Hexagon 2012 User Conference. I will be attending Monday – Thursday. This is quite a departure from the current business model of hardware and software to the services business. Stay tuned.
I don’t really understand why Hexagon acquired ONLY 25% of BLOM, why not all?
it’s better to date, before you get married.
This is how they have operated for years. If there is some level of vested interested in a technology or core competency, they cautiously invest; however in time, like lidar said, they draw the company into some level of marriage.