GARMIN Acquires VESPER Marine

[jimh]

The GARMIN corporation has acquired the marine electronics manufacturer VESPER Marine, according to a press release from January 2022.

VESPER Marine was a New Zealand privately-held company that was an innovator in VHF Marine Band radios, AIS devices, and vessel monitoring equipment.

The marine electronic and electrical supply business has lately seen many smaller and independent suppliers taken over by larger corporations. For example, Lowrance was acquired by NAVICO, and then NAVICO was acquired by Brunswick. Brunswick also acquired a slew of marine electrical and electronic suppliers when in 2018 they bought Ancor, BEP, Blue Sea Systems, Czone, Del City, Lenco Marine, Marinco, Mastervolt, Park Power, Progressive Industries, and ProMariner from Power Products, owned by GenStar Capital.

I hope that the GARMIN acquisition of VESPER works out better than the Brunswick acquisition of another New Zealand small marine electronics manufacturer, NAVMAN. That corporate takeover ended with NAVMAN being shut down, and all the NAVMAN innovative marine products disappearing.

It seems the marine business world is heading toward a few giant conglomerates owning all the formerly independent brands.

[dtmackey]

Had a NAVMAN yeas ago and it was a great priced multifuntion GPS plotter with additional features in a 12" screen for far less than competitive units. I'm not a huge fan of all the mergers and aquisitions and I believe it stifles competition.

The cost of new marine electronics is getting out of hand, expecially when you can purchase an app for a Iphone or Ipad that is nearly as good for $25.

D-

[Don SSDD]

I’m thinking Garmin is more of an electronics company, not a conglomerate like Brunswick. Garmin I hope want this company for some leading edge tech that will enhance Garmin products not to shut down a competitor and eliminate competition.

Oligopolies are bad for us consumers- what happens if say Brunswick writes a big cheque and buys say Yamaha Marine? Less outboard and dealers choice.

[jimh]

Another bottleneck to competition is that Brunswick owns major marine distributor companies:

• Land 'N' Sea (USA)
• Kellogg Marine Supply (USA)
• Paynes Marine Group (Canada)
• Boating Lifestyle Adventures( Australia)
• Lankhorst Taselaar (Netherlands)