It’s official — one of Vancouver’s biggest tech companies is off the market.
U.S. technology giant Motorola Solutions Inc.’s (NYSE:MSI) has closed the US$1 billion deal to acquire Avigilon Corporation (TSX:AVO).
The sale, which was completed March 28, was originally announced in early February when Motorola agreed to assume Avigilon’s net debt and acquire 44.6 million Avigilon shares at C$27 a share.
Avigilon is expected to be delisted on the Toronto Stock Exchange by the close of trading April 2.
The Vancouver-based tech firm, which ranks 66th on BIV’s 2017 Top 100 Most Profitable Companies in B.C. list, develops software and hardware for video surveillance.
In the tech company’s last fiscal year it generated revenue of $408 million, up from $354 million a year earlier.
Net income, meanwhile, jumped from $7.1 million to $28.2 million year over year.
Avigilon CEO Alex Fernandes founded the company in 2004 using the profits from the C$20-million sale of his previous venture, QImaging.
He took the company public in 2011, raising C$25 million in an initial public offering that offered shares at C$4.50.
Days after the Motorola deal was announced, Fernandes said he would retire from the company.
Fernandes owned 4.3 million shares or 9.89% of the company, according to data from 4 Traders.
With Motorola acquiring Avigilon’s outstanding shares for C$27 a share, Fernandes is poised to walk away with C$116 million from the deal.
“I suspect that he’s going to want to be more of a mentor and a contributor rather than an active entrepreneur again,” Brent Holliday, CEO of Garibaldi Capital Advisors, told Business in Vancouver in February.
“In the [Silicon] Valley, it seems that people just keep going. Even when they have massive exits they go and do it again, so you never know.”
The past year has been especially notable for the high-profile exits among Vancouver tech companies.
PayPal Holdings Inc. (Nas-daq:PYPL) acquired Vancouver-based TIO Networks Corp. in a deal worth $302 million.
Aerospace firm MDA is reincorporating in the U.S. under a new parent company known as Maxar Technologies Ltd. (NYSE, TSX:MAXR) following MDA’s own US$2.4 billion acquisition of Colorado-based DigitalGlobe.
Meanwhile, other potential anchor companies like Shoes.com went bankrupt, and home-building supply e-commerce firm BuildDirect filed for creditor protection last fall. However, BuildDirect announced earlier this week that it emerged from creditor protection after five months and had raised US$28 million in the interim.
Apple Inc. (Nasdaq:AAPL) has also turned its attention to Vancouver, acquiring Buddybuild in early January for an undisclosed amount.
