FLIR Systems Acquires Waterloo’s Aeryon Labs for $266 Million
One thing is certain—the drone business is here to stay.
FLIR Systems announced they have acquired Aeryon Labs for $200 million USD ($266 million CAD). FLIR, an Oregon-based company, specializes in building sensors that can enhance and heighten awareness through thermal imaging and other technologies. The sensors are mainly used by surveillance and condition monitoring organizations.
The acquisition makes sense considering the Waterloo-based Aeryon primarily creates and builds high-performing UAV drones. Their current models actually incorporate FLIR sensors already and are utilized by over 20 different military forces in over 30 countries.
“The acquisition of Aeryon Labs reinforces our long-term strategy to move beyond providing sensors to the development of complete solutions that save lives and livelihoods,” said Jim Cannon, president and CEO of FLIR Systems. “This acquisition, coupled with our acquisition of Prox Dynamics in 2016, greatly increases our unmanned systems solutions capabilities, expanding beyond nano-UAS into Group 1 UAS solutions for military. We intend to continue to invest and build this area of our business and broaden our capabilities as we view unmanned and autonomous solutions to be a significant opportunity for organic growth in the coming years.”
Aeryon’s flagship device, the SkyRanger UAS, is a portable drone that can be deployed and operated by a single party, It is capable of delivering payloads to remote areas and monitoring the environment in very rough conditions. The acquisition will allow FLIR to work with even more partners and bring their sensor technology to new heights.
“As drone technology and its markets evolve, customers are seeking UAS as just one component of a broader solution,” said Dave Kroetsch, co-founder and CTO of Aeryon Labs. “While Aeryon has been evolving in that direction for the past few years, being part of FLIR Systems brings a path to include our hardware and software technologies in much bigger solutions than would have ever been possible on our own.”
With this acquisition, Aeryon will be able to penetrate FLIR’s global market.
