Two of transportation’s largest tech companies, Trimble and Platform Science, have partnered in a deal that will give Trimble a 32.5% stake in Platform Science and a seat on the company’s board.
The transaction, in which Platform Science will acquire Trimble’s global transportation telematics business units, is expected to close in the first half of 2025, subject to regulatory approval. The deal was announced during the opening session of Trimble’s annual user conference Trimble Insight 2024 in Las Vegas.
Upon completion of its pending acquisition, Platform Science will have two combined in-cab commercial vehicle ecosystems, giving its customers access to more applications and offerings via Trimble’s transportation telematics systems. Trimble’s telematics customers will continue to have access to their Trimble solutions via Platform Science’s virtual vehicle platform, and Platform Science customers will have the option to access Trimble’s other core transportation business units not included in the transaction: Vusion (fleet compliance and analytics), Enterprise, Maps (routing, scheduling, visualization and navigation solutions) and Transporeon (TMS), which it acquired in 2023.
Trimble CEO Rob Painter said Trimble has made more than 100 acquisitions over the last 20 years. Trimble’s mobility business was built in large part in 2011 when it acquired PeopleNet, which became part of Trimble’s telematics systems that it is now divesting. Painter said the company has divested businesses over time when it felt like it wasn’t the best owner – as is the case with this divestiture – as the company seeks to create a more software-driven ecosystem and become hardware agnostic over time.
"We believe combining our global transportation telematics portfolio with Platform Science's will further advance fleet mobility and provide our customers with a broader portfolio of solutions to solve industry problems," Painter said via release. "Increased collaboration between the new Platform Science business and Trimble's remaining transportation businesses will enhance our ability to provide positive outcomes for our global customers of commercial mapping, transportation management, freight procurement and visibility solutions. This deal will result in significant synergies along with tremendous opportunities for employees to continue to grow in a more competitive business."
He said this move will benefit the two companies, allowing them to reinvest more into its business lines and compete in “what is a very different landscape today than it was before.” Trimble has reinvested over $600 million into research and development over the past year, he said.
Co-founder and CEO of Platform Science Jack Kennedy said this deal creates scale, not only for customer reach, but also for its developers to experiment and create solutions that don’t yet exist. Kennedy, however, did not expound on Platform Science’s outlook for what the Trimble product line will look like under Platform Science once this is a done deal.
"This partnership marks the inflection point for a true platform approach to transportation technology. Now, powered by OEM-native software services, we will deliver unprecedented choice," Kennedy said in the release. "We are confident choice will expand exponentially as existing providers and new developers now see the opportunity to reach vehicles everywhere with high quality OEM data delivered in a consistent, reliable way. This finally empowers developers to easily address the endemic inefficiencies that have plagued transportation across vehicles globally."
