Tech

Motorola offers $27 per share to buy Vancouver-based surveillance company Avigilon

by Charlie Smith on February 2nd, 2018 at 7:55 AM
    1 of 1 2 of 1

      It looks like another Vancouver company will be purchased by a foreign-owned technology giant.

      Illinois-based Motorola announced that it's reached a "definitive agreement" to buy Avigilon for about $1 billion.

      The Vancouver-based company creates advanced security-surveillance systems, which it sells to institutional, retail, and health-care clients.

      Motorola has offered $27 per share, which was an 18.5 percent premium over Avigilon's stock price before the announcement.

      This morning, the stock has risen 18 percent, indicating that investors like the proposed deal.

      Since 2014, Motorola has been owned by the China-based tech company Lenovo.

      It's not Motorola's first big takeover in this market. Back in 1988, it purchased MDI Mobile Data International, which was a spinoff from MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates.

      MacDonald Dettwiler and Associates is Canada's premier space company and last year, the National Post reported that its operations are "controlled by an American corporation".

      Several years ago as prime minister, Stephen Harper blocked MDA's sale to a U.S. company. But Postmedia journalist David Pugliese revealed more recently that a Delaware company, SSL MDA Holdings Inc., is now the operating company.

      Early last year, another Vancouver company, TIO Networks, was taken over by U.S.-based PayPal in a $304-million deal.

      An early B.C. player in this sector, Norsat International Inc., was at the centre of a takeover battle last year between a Chinese company and a U.S. investment fund.

      The Chinese company, Hytera Communications, eventually won court approval to complete the deal.