KVH sells Videotel business for $90 million

Middletown, R.I., headquartered KVH Industries, Inc., (Nasdaq: KVHI), has sold its Videotel maritime training business to an affiliate of Oakley Capital for a base purchase price of $90 million, on a cash-free, debt-free basis, subject to working capital adjustments. The sale was completed immediately upon execution of definitive agreements.

“As part of our long-term strategic roadmap, we are focusing on the large and growing markets of our core mobile connectivity and inertial navigation businesses,” says Martin Kits van Heyningen, chief executive officer of KVH. “We intend to use the net proceeds of the sale to invest in three key growth initiatives that we expect will drive significant value creation, as well as to reduce our debt. Specifically, we plan to invest in the development and commercialization of our photonic integrated chip technology for use in autonomous vehicles and other commercial and military platforms, to support the further acceleration of our AgilePlans (Connectivity as a Service) program, and also to finalize the development and launch of our IoT connectivity solution. Videotel helped us to penetrate the commercial maritime markets initially, but our strategic approach has evolved to focus on faster growing markets that we believe will produce greater long-term shareholder value.”

To maintain continuity for KVH’s AgilePlans customers, KVH has retained certain rights to continue including the Videotel training content with the AgilePlans program.

The Videotel group of companies includes Super Dragon Ltd., Videotel Marine International Ltd., Videotel Training Services Ltd., Videotel Consultants and Rentals Ltd., Videotel Marine Asia Ltd., and Videotel Pte Ltd.