Teledyne DALSA acquires minority stake in lidar-maker Optech

Teledyne (Thousand Oaks, CA, USA) announced that its subsidiary, Teledyne DALSA (Waterloo, ON, Canada), had acquired minority interest in the parent company of Optech Incorporated (Vaughan, ON, Canada). Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Optech itself had recently acquired Geospatial Systems (Rochester, NY, USA), a maker of cameras and systems primarily for airborne imaging.

Optech manufactures advanced laser-based survey and digital imaging instrumentation with 285 employees worldwide. Founded by Dr. Allan Carswell in 1974, Optech offers both standalone and fully integrated light detection and ranging (lidar) systems and camera imaging solutions used in airborne terrestrial mapping, airborne laser bathymetry, mobile mapping and laser imaging, as well as space-qualified sensors for orbital operations and planetary exploration. Optech's imaging and mapping systems are used by a broad range of global customers engaged in the energy, natural resources and infrastructure industries, as well as government customers.

"Optech's three dimensional lidar-based imaging systems are complementary to Teledyne's growing line of X-ray, UV, visible and infrared sensors, cameras and software," said Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Teledyne. "In addition, we were attracted to Optech's presence in the environmental, energy and marine domains, where Optech's lidar systems are used for flood plain and coastal zone mapping, servicing power and gas lines, and land and harbor infrastructure planning."

"We are pleased to have Teledyne as a strategic investor in the company," said Don Carswell, president of Optech. "Ranging from Teledyne DALSA's CCD sensors that we currently use to Teledyne's presence in the imaging, environmental, and marine markets, we see Teledyne contributing to Optech's growth and profitability."

As part of its investment in Optech, Teledyne received an option to purchase 100% of the shares of the company after three years. With the prior acquisition of DALSA and the recent investment in Nova Research (Nova Sensors), Optech represents Teledyne's third strategic investment in the digital imaging domain in 2011.

SOURCE: Teledyne

Posted by Vision Systems Design