Equipment

Zebra Technologies is to accelerate the growth of ‘active' RFID tags across the supply chain with the acquisition of WhereNet for £64m (US$126m).

Zebra, which specialises in thermal barcode, ‘smart’ label and receipt printers, already offers RFID printer/encoders as products to improve supply chain efficiency and security.

Zebra chief executive Edward Kaplan said WhereNet’s active RFID expertise would be a “natural complement” to two of Zebra’s key technologies, passive RFID and barcoding.

An active RFID tag is battery powered and able to hold kilobytes of data, such as the service record of a military vehicle, and broadcast over greater distances than a passive tag, which is activated by a reader. RFID readers mainly have a range of only three metres.

WhereNet, which is based in California, provides real-time locating systems to track and trace goods using RFID tags, fixed-position antennae and web-enabled software. Applications so far are primarily in parts replenishment, vehicle tracking, truck yard management and marine cargo tracking.

The firm’s turnover in 2006 was £18m but Zebra expects to increase this to £25m this year.

Zebra will run WhereNet as a separate business unit, led by the firm’s current chief executive, Dan Doles.

Zebra expected the deal to close by the end of January, after Packaging News had gone to press.

Shareholders representing more than 85% of WhereNet’s voting stock had agreed to vote in favour of the transaction.