The industrial giant Teledyne will acquire FLIR, a company in Oregon that manufactures thermal imaging and night vision technology, the companies announced on Monday. The deal is worth $ 8 billion in a mix of cash and shares.
‘The core of both our companies is our own sensor technologies. Our business models are similar: we each provide sensors, cameras and sensor systems to our customers, ‘said Teledyne chairman Robert Mehrabian in a statement. The companies’ sensors are ‘uniquely complementary, with minimal overlap’, he added, which could be important when regulators decide whether to approve the acquisition.
FLIR, based in Oregon, makes technical and night vision technology for the military and for industrial and consumer applications – if you’ve ever seen infrared recordings, chances are it was captured with a FLIR camera. FLIR also has some $ 60 million contracts with the military for its Black Hornet drone, and the Hadron thermal camera is used in other drone-approved drones. FLIR also provides thermal imaging cameras for Zoox’s self-propelled robot taxis, which help vehicles better “see” people and driving conditions, especially important in urban areas.
Teledyne also has technology that is handy for self-driving vehicles: in addition to making thermal sensors for defense and industrial customers, including NASA, it is one of the companies that builds the LIDAR (light detection and variation) sensors that you build on top of a can see for yourself. -ry motor. Its LIDAR was also used last year in NASA’s OSIRIS REx mission, which helped map the surface of the Bennu asteroid so it could collect samples to bring back to Earth. Teledyne should not be confused with Velodyne, of which the LIDAR appears in some of the earliest self-driving prototypes and in Google’s early cars, among others.
The acquisition is expected to close sometime in the middle of the year, pending approval of the regulations.