Navionics acquired by Garmin

[sunchaser]

Lets be frank here, business 101 is at play. Navionics is a privately held Italian company whose owners were looking to bail out. Monetizing one's assets is not unusual at all. Italy's economy is in tatters and who knows what the owner's situation was leading them to voluntarily sell.

Maybe just maybe, they've been on the block for awhile and Garmin was the last best hope vs worse alternatives? Garmin is a public company and will likely post the terms of the deal in a filing. Then we may know more.

 

[BandB]

In my selfish little Furuno world I have both Furuno Trident and Furuno NN3. For fun and not cruising charting I have Navionics on an iPad. I've no past, current or future need for any Garmin product (nor Ray, Simrad or Lowrance for that matter).

So two questions:
1. How does Garmin's purchase of Navionics affect me?
2. Has Garmin's purchase of AC resulted in a degradation of AC?

1. Doesn't affect you at all yet. Will at some point. Furuno will not continue indefinitely encouraging use of a Garmin owned product, nor will Garmin allow it without making more money from it. The divorce between Furuno and Navionics is inevitable in my opinion. Don't know how long that might take. Now Furuno may remain fine with buying or using products from competitors and considering the providing of charts outside their main line of business of equipment.

2. Well, we currently have a Beta product made available that has significantly less functionality than the old flash version and has even impacted the flash version in minor ways. Fortunately today the flash version is still available although some have experienced issues with it. We now have no separate eboatcards but required for AC. If they actually start to require real accurate information to use it, many of us will depart. Now how much of this was already in Jeff's plans, no one knows. In the long run the integration of Garmin and AC may improve but that with other chart plotters might or might not. Support for AC has already disappeared unless you're willing to use facebook, but this also seems more a Jeff than a Garmin thing. There are other fears that may or may not materialize, but today mostly uncertainty.

I think perhaps the greatest fear is that Navionics and AC become more Garmin add-ons and less generally available and used. None of us know what will happen or what already has been decided behind the scenes. Best case is Navionics and AC remain fully available as they are today. Worst case is they become proprietary products only available with Garmin products. Likely future is somewhere between the best and worst case scenarios.

 

[Bigsfish]

Garmin is certainly going to be the 800pound gorilla if they aren’t already. I’m sure Garmin will be able to monetize their purchase. Those who don’t like Garmin better get over it and those who like Garmin embrace the newer products that will surely be forthcoming.

Personally I like Garmin and I was looking a a boat that had Raymarine products and I determined I would need to spend $60K to upgrade to Garmin so I factored that into the price. I’m a technology retard and Garmin is made for morons like me.

 

[Comodave]

I have never had Garmin products. A friend of mine has Garmin and the power cord plug on the unit cracked. Garmin quoted $450.00 to replace the plug on the MFD. No Garmin in my future.

 

[Bigsfish]

Doesn’t pass my smell test, perhaps you friend misunderstood. I’m not a Garmin dealer so my opinion could be worth nothing.

 

[ssobol]

Garmin is on a buying spree. They recently bought ActiveCaptain, now Navionics.

I've had both Garmin and other plotters with Navionics charts. I greatly prefer the Navionics charts over the Garmin ones, and now choose not to buy Garmin products because of the charts.

 

[Bigsfish]

I’m not a Pollyanna, nor do I work for Garmin but most here seem to think this purchase by Garmin will result in a negative for boaters. Why not see this as a way for Garmin to improve their charts and give people an option of purchasing two different charts. At the very least wait until we can determine what will be the final product then you can applaud or criticize.

 

[Donsan]

You mentioned crowd sourcing. NOAA is actively working with Rose Point to download, from users like us, data from our GPS and depth sounders to improve chart data. So Rose Point then is another crowd sourcing data gatherer. To that end, will those who use and enjoy Coastal Explorer be affected by Garmin picking up Navionics?

I am not real familiar with Coastal Explorer. Do they make their own maps? Don't know enough to answer your question but suspect there is no impact.

 

[BandB]

I’m not a Pollyanna, nor do I work for Garmin but most here seem to think this purchase by Garmin will result in a negative for boaters. Why not see this as a way for Garmin to improve their charts and give people an option of purchasing two different charts. At the very least wait until we can determine what will be the final product then you can applaud or criticize.

I think that's a misstatement of the general views here. I'd say it's a plus for those using Garmin but ultimately it may well diminish competition and increase costs. I'd say it's a matter of concern to those using Furuno and a concern to the company.

It's a bit of a trend reversal as was the Navico deal. We had charts from equipment manufacturers and then the growth of independent chart providers. Now, two of those have been acquired. The only real force in the marina, anchorage, shoaling crowd sourced world has been acquired.

So, I think there's a reason for concern and uncertainty. If other equipment providers must go to a competitor for their charts or their other software such as AC, then that's a risk to the market.

Simrad has a similar challenge as they use Navionics and C-Map.

I don't know where it will lead.

 

[ssobol]

I’m not a Pollyanna, nor do I work for Garmin but most here seem to think this purchase by Garmin will result in a negative for boaters. Why not see this as a way for Garmin to improve their charts and give people an option of purchasing two different charts. At the very least wait until we can determine what will be the final product then you can applaud or criticize.

Consolidation in any industry rarely works out to the benefit of the end user.

 

[sunchaser]

Consolidation in any industry rarely works out to the benefit of the end user.

Not so sure of this statement. M&A activity pretty well rules the business world. Been involved in many of these with the intent to put a desirable business together where it could indeed be "sold." My guess is Giuseppe got what he wanted after years of toiling away, with no regrets as to Garmin's future plans.

In our marine world look no further than Raymarine to see how a buyout gave them life and provided end users with sensible hardware alternatives.

 

[North Baltic sea]

Garmin is negotiating buying navicons

Garmin is in the process of buying and building know-how from the outside, lastly being Interphase ...

liks this news
Garmin® acquires Navionics® | Business Wire

NBs

 

[dhmeissner]

Loved my Garmin Zumo on my RT. Still have it but use it in my cars now with lifetime maps, hope it never dies. I think it took some big balls for them to get into marine electronics. Maybe they don’t suck at it I don’t know. When and if I upgrade I will have to take a look, but then I have a big iPad Pro that seems to do what I need. I mean how can I get lost in Puget sound?

This was just a 2 glass of Merlot ramble..... as you were.

 

[twistedtree]

I’m not a Pollyanna, nor do I work for Garmin but most here seem to think this purchase by Garmin will result in a negative for boaters. Why not see this as a way for Garmin to improve their charts and give people an option of purchasing two different charts. At the very least wait until we can determine what will be the final product then you can applaud or criticize.

For Garmin, it's all good. But for Furuno, Raymarine, Navico, and others it is likely bad.

Best case is that Navionics continues to operate as an independent chart supplier to other vendors with no hand on the scale favoring Garmin, or penalizing companies who compete with Garmin. But that seldom lasts very long. Eventually Garmin will want Navionics to do something that is cross-purposes with their business supporting other vendors. Guess who will win and who will lose? And garmin's competitors will think long and hard about continuing to send money to a Garmin subsidiary, and think even harder about being dependent on them. As I recall, Raymarine only supports Navioncs charts. So their balls are right in Garmin's grip. The bottom line is that I think you will see other vendors starting to distance themselves from Navionics as a chart supplier, which means the non-Garmin world loses a chart supplier.

Worst case is that Navionics stops supplying charts for anyone or anything other than a Navionics or Garmin product. In other words, they shut off the chart supply to their competitors, just as their chart supply was shut off some years ago. That would cripple Raymarine, and put the hurt on others. If Navico then did the same thing with C-Map, the two companies could seriously damage their competitors.

 

[Bigsfish]

I read something in an Active Captain newsletter that Garmin was going to expand Navionics charting and the new AC app will allow us to plot on our IPads and transfer automatically to Garmin units.

 

[BandB]

I read something in an Active Captain newsletter that Garmin was going to expand Navionics charting and the new AC app will allow us to plot on our IPads and transfer automatically to Garmin units.

Did you also read the other side of the story, that all that added functionality won't be available with other equipment providers?

If I'm an equipment provider, my one thought today would be "Never again will I allow myself to be dependent on a third party for my charts or other functionality."

 

[Bigsfish]

BandB

Nope, I only read the part that applies to me. Happy today I own Garmin.

 

[BandB]

BandB

Nope, I only read the part that applies to me. Happy today I own Garmin.

We have Garmin, Furuno and Transas. Think they each excel in different areas.

 

[Bigsfish]

I have Garmin, Garmin and Garmin. I win! LOL ��

 

[BandB]

I have Garmin, Garmin and Garmin. I win! LOL ��

Not when you see the new pricing structure when they and only they are integrated with Navionics and Active Captain and no one else can compete.

 

[Cigatoo]

Not when you see the new pricing structure when they and only they are integrated with Navionics and Active Captain and no one else can compete.

This is why I think that the FTC should have a look at this, if they haven’t already. It’s obvious that Navionics was eating up a lot of Garmins Business with smartphone and tablet apps and also supplying a strong if not superior product to Garmins direct competition. I am not an attorney but if it walks like a duck......yada yada yada.

 

[twistedtree]

This is why I think that the FTC should have a look at this, if they haven’t already. It’s obvious that Navionics was eating up a lot of Garmins Business with smartphone and tablet apps and also supplying a strong if not superior product to Garmins direct competition. I am not an attorney but if it walks like a duck......yada yada yada.

It’s all way too small for any intervention. Garmin didn’t report the financials on either transaction which means they were both insignificant events for public markets. Now Garmin is a Swiss company, so the rules may be different, but I doubt in any significant way.

 

[sunchaser]

I still use 10 year old CMap chips, discs and cards in some devices. All my current on board gear (lots of it) will be totally unaffected by Garmin buying Navico. Best to hang on to some of this old stuff that still supplies data for our plotters and other instruments.

Some say Furuno passed on buying Navico. Things will unfold most likely that cause current hand wringing to become a distant memory. Twistedtree likely remembers the breakup of AT&T with Lucent being formed and then Alcatel coming about and finally Nokia buying Alcatel. It never stops.

I wish Jeppsen was still around. Oh well.

 

[Cigatoo]

The first time that I experienced Navionics on my IPhone I knew that it was too good to be true. I hope that the employees of Navionics have equity.

 

[Bigsfish]

We all need to sit back and wait. I have no idea what pricing Garmin will introduce but the are a Smart and if they overprice like BandB suggests they will soon have competition. Please, please, please don’t suggest we need more government interference in our boating life. The free market will solve our problems.

 

[twistedtree]

I still use 10 year old CMap chips, discs and cards in some devices. All my current on board gear (lots of it) will be totally unaffected by Garmin buying Navico. Best to hang on to some of this old stuff that still supplies data for our plotters and other instruments.

Some say Furuno passed on buying Navico. Things will unfold most likely that cause current hand wringing to become a distant memory. Twistedtree likely remembers the breakup of AT&T with Lucent being formed and then Alcatel coming about and finally Nokia buying Alcatel. It never stops.

I wish Jeppsen was still around. Oh well.

Is the rumor that Furuno passed on Navico, or passed on Navionics? I see no synergy with Navico, and a huge liability. With Navionics I could see some synergy, but Fununo is probably the most immune to Navionics going away since they source and provide all the world's official charts as well as Navionics and C-map. Loss of Navionics charts would take away a choice from their customers, but won't leave anyone without an alternate chart option.

Funny you bring up ATT. I actually had a front row seat, working for Bell Labs for the first 3 years of the breakup. I worked for 3 or 4 different companies over the three years I was there, and never changed jobs..... Everything just swirled around us.

 

[twistedtree]

Aquisitions and roll ups in any industry is business 101. OK, maybe business 102. But it's very common, and over the past 5-10 years the marine industry has seen quite a bit of it.

Marinco - actually Power Products - bought BEP, C-Zone, Blue Seas, and Mastervolt. And probably more that I can't think of.

Advantec was formed by the acquisition of Steelhead, Freeman, Diamond Sea Glaze, and Pacific Coast Marine

Numerous boat builders have been absorbed by others, often after failure

Navico was created by the acquisition of Northstar, Robertson (may have come via Simrad), Simrad's consumer products, Lowrence, B&G, and most recently C-map

Furuno holds majority interest in MaxSea and MapMedia. And MaxSea acquired Nobletec and slipped their products in under the Nobletec name.

Parker bought Racor, Village Marine, and Sea Recovery

ITT bought Rule, Jabsco, and Gould. Then spun them out as Xylem.

Dometic bought CruiseAir, Marinair, and maybe more.

 

[sunchaser]

Is the rumor that Furuno passed on Navico, or passed on Navionics? I see no synergy with Navico,

My bad. Navionics, auto correct got me.

 

[BandB]

Is the rumor that Furuno passed on Navico, or passed on Navionics? I see no synergy with Navico, and a huge liability. With Navionics I could see some synergy, but Fununo is probably the most immune to Navionics going away since they source and provide all the world's official charts as well as Navionics and C-map. Loss of Navionics charts would take away a choice from their customers, but won't leave anyone without an alternate chart option.

Funny you bring up ATT. I actually had a front row seat, working for Bell Labs for the first 3 years of the breakup. I worked for 3 or 4 different companies over the three years I was there, and never changed jobs..... Everything just swirled around us.

I think it's reasonable to assume that C-Map and Navionics approached all major electronics providers. Furuno's emphasis is not decidedly larger boats and commercial. If the price of chart software increases, likely not an issue to those customers. Still I think it will be interesting to see how they respond.

 

[sunchaser]

Aquisitions and roll ups in any industry is business 101. OK, maybe business 102. But it's very common, and over the past 5-10 years the marine industry has seen quite a bit of it.
.

Not to forget West Marine getting bought that seemed to generate some teeth gnashing on TF.