FARO Technologies Completes Acquisition Of Spatialmetrix Corp.
SMX, which is headquartered in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, is a leading manufacturer and supplier of laser trackers, metrology software and contract inspection services, had revenues of approximately $12 million in 2001. SMX has completed the development of a new generation laser tracker product, which is expected to start shipping in the first quarter of 2002. The previous generation product, introduced in 1996, was sold until the end of the third quarter of 2001. Approximately 75% of SMX's sales were in North America in 2001. FARO expects increased sales of SMX products and services outside of North America through FARO's existing sales channels in Europe and Asia.
"This acquisition provides FARO an excellent opportunity to expand our product line with a complementary technology for our existing worldwide customer base," said Simon Raab, Faro's President and CEO. "Faro's new patent-pending laser tracker represents a dramatic improvement in capability and reliability, at two-thirds of the cost of the competition. The Laser Tracker is a high accuracy, portable 3-dimensional measurement technology with a range of over 100 feet, which when combined with FARO's conventional Control Station with FaroArms results in a portable product line capable of handling virtually any manufacturing measurement challenge, " Raab concluded.
"Our 60 employees are very excited with the opportunity to team with FARO," said Andrew Thomson, President of SMX. "FARO's financial strength and global presence provide the basis for strong growth in our laser tracker sales worldwide."
FARO Technologies, Inc. and its international subsidiaries are pioneers and market leaders in the computer-aided manufacturing measurement (CAM2) market, which is the final frontier of the computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) revolution. FARO's product line includes portable, 3D measurement equipment, a broad range of CAD-based inspection software for portable and fixed-base coordinate measurement machines, as well as factory-level statistical process control (SPC), and manufacturing quality consulting services. The Company's products play a key role in the worldwide trend toward CAD-based total quality management for shortened production cycles and for the reduction in scrap and rework. FARO's products are used worldwide by a wide variety of manufacturing companies, both large and small. News and information are available at the Company's web site at http://www.faro.com.
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FARO Technologies Inc., 125 Technology Park, Lake Mary, FL 32746-6204. Tel: 800-736-0234; Fax: 407-562-5221.