KIERAN DALY / LONDON
Avionics company hopes move will propel it into burgeoning EFB market
Teledyne Technologies is acquiring Spirent's Aviation Information Solutions (AIS) business to plug the gaps in its line of flight data acquisition and processing products and launch it into the burgeoning electronic flight bag (EFB) market.
For UK-based Spirent, the deal offloads a unit that has negligible connection with its primary communications and network technology business, but the $6.85 million price is less than half of AIS's 2002 sales of $16.8 million.
Teledyne will integrate the business into its Teledyne Controls unit and expects to retain the existing management, including Spirent Systems president Phil Benedict.
Teledyne director of investor relations Jason Van Wees says: "The products for Teledyne Controls are really complementary. We have very, very similar customers and business models.
"We buy flight servers but they have flight servers. We have a wireless ground link for GSM data, whereas they have 802.11 Gatelink and now we can sell both of those."
Teledyne is particularly interested in Spirent's EFB, which already has a launch customer - Qantas - for the airline's Airbus A330 fleet.
"It takes a lot of money and a lot of time to do that," says Van Wees. "So EFB was something that Spirent had and we liked very much for it to go into our suite of offerings."
Teledyne's commercial avionics programme has been built around the idea of transferring data to and from the cockpit, and making more powerful use of it for applications such as safety monitoring, diagnostic maintenance and flight training. Its Magnastar in-flight telephone system is a market leader which fits well, in the air transport and business and commuter aviation worlds, with Spirent's growing line of cabin management and display products.
"It's the whole idea of getting more data and transferring it in real-time via wireless or Gatelink and using that data more proactively, for example for training and safety," says Van Wees.
By selling data acquisition concepts directly to airlines, Teledyne has dramatically grown its market share on Airbus aircraft, he says. "Two years ago on Airbus we had almost zero share and now we have 20-30%, and we think we can get to about 50% by gaining customers."
Source: Flight International
