Firm could potentially bring together 3D data from the bottom of the ocean to the moon
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. – Teledyne Technologies, a publicly held and diverse firm with holdings in digital imaging, instrumentation, aerospace and defense, and engineering, announced this week that its subsidiary, Teledyne RDI, has entered into an agreement to acquire BlueView Technologies.
BlueView, located in Seattle, Wash., makes technology geared toward what they call microbathymetry, creating dense 3D point clouds underwater. They have a robust YouTube channel with many videos detailing their technology here.
Terms for the deal have not been released.
Teledyne, which earlier this year increased its ownership of Optech to 51 percent, is looking to capitalize on the opportunities that could lie in combining these disparate 3D data acquisition technologies, said Jason VanWees, VP of corporate development, while emphasizing that the deal has not yet closed.
“We’re intrigued by the idea of creating point clouds all the way from the sea floor through to space,” he said in an interview with SPAR 3D. “Optech has been in space, they have the airborne scanning technology, the tripod-based scanning. To be able to merge point clouds for bridge surveys and the like, that’s something that definitely intrigues us. Though it’s sometimes easier said than done.”
It may be that Optech’s longer lifespan as a company working with 3D data means that it has software or workflows that can help BlueView better manage the data its hardware collects and make that data more useful for more people, said VanWees, though that’s only speculation until the deal is consummated.
Initially, however, BlueView is likely to be grouped with Teledyne’s other marine-focused businesses, as that’s where there is fairly obvious synergy.
“BlueView will add novel technology and unique products to our Teledyne Marine group, which consists of 11 businesses that provide acoustic sensors and communication devices, harsh environment interconnects, and complete autonomous underwater vehicles,” said Robert Mehrabian, chairman, president and CEOof Teledyne, in a statement announcing the deal. Further, he said, “BlueView’s imaging sonars and microbathymetry systems further increase Teledyne’s instrumentation content on AUVs and ROVs used in oil and gas and marine survey applications.”
The deal is expected to close in early July, according to Teledyne’s press release.
