Navman founder: BNT to be sold to European equity firm
By IBI Magazine
Navman founder Peter Maire told a New Zealand website that Brunswick's divestiture of its Brunswick New Technologies (BNT) division to a European-based equity group is imminent, though he did not name any companies. Brunswick announced that it was placing the division for sale on April 27, 2006. "Rumours are it is getting closer," Maire told National Nine News. "It needs a new owner to love it because it's losing a lot of people. It's heartbreaking to see that happening." Brunswick completed the purchase of Navman, which makes Global Position Systems (GPS) technology, two years ago for $NZ108 million. Maire told the news site that Navman had become a victim of a change at the top when former CEO George Buckley left Brunswick for 3M. "Brunswick had gone from being a company with a technology strategy to one that decided technology wasn't on," said Maire. "When you don't have an owner, the staff feel unloved. It's bitterly disappointing for myself and the management team." Maire, who has not worked at Navman for several years, said that former chief executive Stephen Newman and second-in-command Jim Doyle had left the company because of internal struggles. "They both got sick of the bureaucracy and the lack of forward movement." A group of vice presidents below those two had exited as well. "There has been a chain reaction," said Maire. Maire told the news site that the original Navman business model is a good one for New Zealand. "A fantastic management team with a good resource can achieve amazing things on the world stage from New Zealand and at the same time, when that team is not backed by the investor base, then people who believe strongly in the business exit quickly," he told the website. "The rot sets in quickly and in technology, it sets in very quickly." This month, Navman said it was laying off around 30 of its 600 staff from its Auckland and Christchurch offices. There was no indication when the cuts would take place. Dan Kubera, Brunswick's director of media relations and corporate communications, told IBI: "We continue to move forward on the divestiture of Brunswick New Technologies. Merrill Lynch is overseeing the process for us and we have a number of parties involved in due diligence at the present time.
"For obvious reasons we're not going to speculate on proceeds from the transaction, nor on the timing of any potential deal.
"Navman has a good management team. While it is inevitable that some turnover would occur when a company is going through a transition, we are confident that we have the people in place to continue to lead Navman to the next level."
(18 October 2006)
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