Laird Technologies acquires Cattron Group

Laird Technologies, a global leader in the design and supply of customized, performance critical components and systems for advanced electronics wireless products, today announced its acquisition of Cattron Group International. Cattron is a market leader in the design and supply of high-reliability wireless remote control systems serving the railroad, mining, and industrial markets globally and its sales revenues for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2010 were $53.8 million. Laird Technologies designs and manufactures customized, performance-critical products for wireless and other advanced electronics applications.

The purchase expands the scope of Laird Technologies’ wireless machine-to-machine (M2M) product offering and the markets those products serve. In addition to providing custom wireless remote control systems that enable external operation of heavy equipment and vehicles as well as ongoing service for these RC systems, Cattron provides fully hosted networked applications software enabling customers to monitor their remote controlled assets in real time.

Cattron’s headquarters are in Sharpsville, Pa., with additional facilities in North America (Toronto, Canada; Montreal, Canada; Escondido, California), Europe (Mönchengladbach, Germany; Walton-on-Thames, UK), South America (Campinas, Brazil), Africa (Johannesburg, South Africa), and Asia (Shanghai, China).

“Cattron’s leading position in the rail, mining and industrial markets that Laird Technologies does not currently serve will help us grow more broadly in these markets,” said Martin Rapp, CEO of Laird Technologies. “Their experiences and capabilities in providing broad applications software and full systems will help Laird Technologies continue to expand our offering in the large and rapidly growing M2M market.”

“Cattron is very excited to join Laird Technologies, a truly world-class company. Laird’s strength in wireless communications technologies, global operational capabilities, and access to growing international markets will help Cattron to reach the next level of providing the best in safety and productivity solutions to our customers,” said John Paul, CEO of Cattron.

Laird Technologies, a unit of Laird PLC, employs over 10,000 employees in more than 39 facilities located in 13 countries.