Inpixon (NASDAQ:INPX) just announced that they are acquiring Jibestream, a company that developed middleware for creating indoor mapping and location applications. This acquisition follows quickly on their April, 2019, acquisition of Locality, a company that developed indoor location systems for security, visitor analytics and organizational management and efficiency. The two acquisitions in four months show Inpixon's continuing drive to acquire all the elements they need for a strong indoor location offering.
The companies did not announce prices for either acquisition, but SEC filings reveal that Jibestream was acquired for $6.1 Million USD. This price consists of $5 Million CAD in cash plus $3 Million CAD in stock, totaling $8 Million CAD which at the time of this writing is equivalent to roughly $6.1 Million USD.
A recent report by Grizzly Analytics, the analyst firm that I founded, analyzes 26 indoor location related acquisitions. Inpixon's April acquisition of Locality was on the low end of the price range, at $2.1 Million, while the highest priced acquisition was for $140 Million. The lower prices tended to go to companies with component technologies that their acquirer wanted to assemble into a collective offering, while the higher prices went to companies with mature solutions and revenues.
In addition to acquiring Locality and Jibestream, Inpixon also acquired a portfolio of GPS related technologies from GTX Corporation (OTCQB: GTXO) with the aim of strengthening their ability to bridge between outdoor and indoor location services. It appears clear that Inpixon is acquiring technologies at a fast pace in order to fill the gaps and strengthen the strength and breadth of their indoor location offerings.
Inpixon is not alone in using acquisitions to build up strength in the indoor location market. ESRI, a market leader in geographic information systems, acquired indoo.rs, maker of a strong self-learning platform for indoor location services on mobile. Cisco (CSCO), long a strong player in network-centric indoor localization, acquired July Systems in June, 2018, to strengthen their location analytics solutions. These are only a few of the 27 indoor location related acquisitions to date.
So what will Inpixon acquire next? To date their focus has been in location analytics for enterprise and venue services, such as security and visitor analysis, but less in mobile location applications or end-user services. It seems likely that they will soon acquire a small company that has developed a platform for indoor location applications for mobile end-users. They may also try to add accuracy to their location positioning through mobile-based solutions, to augment their network-based positioning.
Another gap that Inpixon may try to fill through acquisitions is to integrate the use of video feeds into their analytics. This would enable them to broaden their analytics to include people whose phones are not detectable or who are not carrying phones. While the video and location technology areas have traditionally been distinct of each other, there are some solutions for video analysis built to integrate with location services, such as Accuware's Sentinel among others.
Finally, they seem likely to acquire a company with a platform for integrating location analytics into other systems, such as retail systems, process control systems, casino management or other venue management systems.
To date, both of Inpixon's acquisitions have been made in Canada, and time will tell whether they will branch out of Canada or continue to focus their M&A activities there.
Whatever Inpixon does, their M&A continues and strengthens the importance of M&A in the indoor location space. More consolidation in the indoor location market seems to be on the horizon. Inpixon appears poised to gain strength in this growing area.
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