DigitalGlobe to Acquire Radiant

DigitalGlobe announced this morning its intent to acquire The Radiant Group from Aston Capital in a $140 million cash transaction.

The combination of the two organizations, which already have a strong history of partnership, will broaden DigitalGlobe’s customer relationships across the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, establish the National Reconnaissance Office as a new customer, and augment the company’s presence at the Defense Intelligence Agency and U.S. Special Operations Command, according to Tony Frazier, senior vice president for U.S. Government Solutions at DigitalGlobe.

“More than 80 percent of Radiant’s revenue is focused on providing advanced geospatial solutions under the brands of Radiant Blue and HumanGeo,” Frazier said, adding Radiant Blue is a leader in constellation modeling, open-source geospatial data management, and the implementation of geospatial platform capabilities in the cloud, and HumanGeo is known for providing geospatial big data analytics to the intelligence and special operations communities.

During this morning’s conference call and webcast discussing the transaction, DigitalGlobe President and CEO Jeffrey Tarr outlined four strategic benefits of the acquisition:

1. Capabilities: “Radiant broadens our capabilities across the entire geospatial intelligence value chain,” Tarr said. “As our customers seek more in the way of finished products and complete solutions, we believe that bringing these capabilities together with the leading source of commercial imagery creates a unique and compelling value proposition.”

Frazier highlighted Radiant’s big data analytics and cloud capabilities: “The U.S. Intelligence Community is going through a period of transition as it modernizes its technology infrastructure to take advantage of the cloud,” Frazier said. “Making data and apps accessible to analysts in the cloud will not only facilitate cost savings, but also enable new forms of data analytics to help analysts anticipate and respond to emerging threats.”

2. Talent: “Radiant brings together hundreds of innovative developers, analysts, and thought leaders with the skills and expertise to solve complex geospatial intelligence challenges,” Tarr said. “The vast majority of our new team members have clearances and are trusted to work on many of our nation’s most sensitive programs. By enabling these new team members to more freely access our imagery and platforms, we intend to create new opportunities to innovate and create value for customers, and exciting career paths for team members.”

Frazier later added Radiant brings to DigitalGlobe more than 400 highly trained, cleared professionals, including 250 software developers.

3. Customer base: “Radiant expands DigitalGlobe’s customer base across the U.S. intelligence and special operations communities with access to more than 80 additional contract vehicles, more than 20 of which are prime contracts,” Tarr said. “Among these customers is the National Reconnaissance Office, which has become increasingly important to our core imagery business. Our primary goal in this combination is to create new value for our customers in the intelligence and special operations communities as they seek to derive new, timely insights from a wide range of geospatial data sources in their efforts to keep our nation safe and secure.

4. Financial: “Radiant diversifies revenue, reduces asset intensity, and is accretive to our most important financial metrics,” Tarr said.

The acquisition is expected to be complete by the end of 2016, and Radiant is on course to deliver 2016 revenue of approximately $100 million.

Tarr concluded: “Taken together, we believe these benefits support a transaction that will create value for customers and share owners by advancing our position as the leading commercial source of geospatial information and insight with the capability and scale to address the needs of the world’s largest and most sophisticated customers.”

Photo Credit: HumanGeo