CNH Industrial, the parent company of Case and New Holland construction and agricultural machinery, announced on March 30 that it will acquire Hemisphere GNSS, a manufacturer of satellite positioning technology solutions, in a transaction valued at $175 million.
CNH expects the transaction, which is subject to shareholder and regulatory approval, to be completed in the third quarter of 2023. Hemisphere is currently owned by Unistrong, a geospatial design, production and services company based in Beijing, China.
This is CNH’s second acquisition of a precision technology company in recent years as the company looks to advance its automated and autonomous solutions for agriculture and construction. In 2021, CNH acquired Raven Industries, and the first in-house products featuring fully integrated Raven precision agriculture systems became available in 2022. CNH says the combined offering between Hemisphere and Raven will give the company “full control of its precision and navigation technologies.”
“This move enhances our automation and autonomy tech stack and broadens our talent pool,” said Marc Kermisch, chief digital and information officer at CNH Industrial. “Having Hemisphere’s technology in-house will enable us to accelerate a broad range of our precision technology programs, providing our customers with immediate productivity-enhancing solutions. It will also increase the long-term competitiveness and flexibility of our agriculture and construction portfolio.”
Hemisphere’s proprietary Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) solutions provide pinpoint accuracy for the agriculture, construction, mining and marine industries. The company designs both electronic systems and software solutions. Its core technology capabilities include application-specific integrated circuit chips, circuit boards, radio frequency signal processing, navigation algorithms and satellite-based correction designs. Hemisphere’s GradeMetrix and SiteMetrix systems are designed to be affordable intuitive solutions for small to mid-sized contractors.
CNH says while Hemisphere’s expertise and network will be integrated into its brands’ products and services, it will continue to operate as a standalone business via operations in the U.S., Canada and Australia.
“Our team is excited to combine resources and talent with CNH Industrial. This enables us to further enhance our technology and product development in core GNSS, agriculture, construction, marine and machine control markets, and to directly integrate our technology with CNH Industrial’s world class equipment,” said Farlin Halsey, president and CEO at Hemisphere GNSS.
