FreightWaves,
A group of executives led by the former CEO of Fleetmatics has filed for an initial public offering to raise up to $130 million for acquisitions in the telematics sector.
Known as a blank check company, Motion Acquisition has no assets besides the people who are working for it, nor does it have any firm plans on what assets it might acquire and develop. Rather, the idea is to take the receipts from the IPO and look to make acquisitions.
“We have not selected any specific target business and we have not, nor has anyone on our behalf, initiated any substantive discussions, directly or indirectly, with any target business regarding a business combination with our company,” Motion Acquisition said in its S-1 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. “We initially intend to focus our search on target businesses in the telematics industry, which includes companies that provide transportation software technology solutions for fleet management, freight and logistics, and connected vehicle applications. We may pursue an initial business combination target in any geographic region.”
The chairman of Motion Acquisition is Jim Travers. He was CEO of Fleetmatics when it was sold in 2016 to Verizon. Fleetmatics was focused on GPS-based applications.
The CEO of Motion Acquisition will be Michael Burdiek. Burdiek retired a few months ago as CEO of CalAmp, a provider of wireless solutions. He had been with that company for 14 years.
Motion Acquisition has filed to have its units traded on NASDAQ.
Although the company is not specific on any acquisitions it may seek, it did spell out several types of businesses it might be interested in buying. “We believe the primary targeted end markets a target business may operate in are very large, presenting significant opportunity,” the company said in the S-1.
The opportunities singled out are:
— Fleet management, fleet maintenance, asset tracking, video telematics
— Digital freight brokerage
— Transportation management systems
— Usage based insurance
It also cited “other markets” that could include auto dealership software and mapping solutions.
“The foregoing transportation software and technology end markets are experiencing significant disruption while giving rise to a wide range of emerging opportunities supported by strong secular trends such as the adoption of vertical cloud solutions and data-driven mobility, business automation, and supply chain modernization,” the company said.
Ironically, earlier this week, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said the SEC is going to begin tighter scrutiny of blank check companies.
As a public company, the management of Motion Acquisition says its access to public markets can help companies in the sector grow though they might not have such access to those markets now.
“We believe many businesses in the transportation software and technology sector could benefit from access to the public markets but have thus far been unable to do so due to a number of factors, including the time it takes to conduct a traditional initial public offering, market volatility and pricing uncertainty,” the S-1 said. “We intend to focus on evaluating both emerging growth and established companies with leading competitive positions, strong management teams and significant long-term potential for growth and profitability.”
Motion Acquisition is New York-based.
