The consolidation of golf’s cart-mounted GPS industry took a dramatic turn last week with the announcement that the Falconhead Capital, LLC private equity firm has acquired industry leaders GPS Industries, Inc. and ProLink Systems, Inc. and merged them into a new company called GPSI Holdings, LLC. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed..
Greg Norman and his Great White Shark Enterprises, a former investor and partner in GPS Industries and a long-time member of Falconhead’s advisory board, is also a partner in the new GPSI Holdings entity and reportedly played a key role in conceiving and executing the acquisitions by Falconhead.
The new company also acquired a series of assets previously held by GPS Industries CEO David Chessler, who will continue as CEO for the new GPSI Holdings entity. Those assets include ProView, another cart-mounted GPS system.
Falconhead also announced that the new company will continue GPS Industries’ relationship with Club Car, where it is part of Club Car’s “Solutions Network” of industry partners. GPSI also partnered in development of Club Car’s Guardian SVC product line, which features a number of GPS-related features and technology.
With the merger of the two companies, GPSI Holdings becomes by far the largest cart-mounted GPS firm in the industry, with nearly 1,000 courses utilizing the GPS systems of one or the other.
GPSI Europe, based in the south of England, continues to be responsible for the company’s activities in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Phil Lewin, GPSI Europe’s chief executive, told GBN that over the course of the next week or so his organisation will contact the golf courses that use the Pro Link system to offer them new service and maintenance agreements with the company.
“We will also be launching a new “touch screen” product in 2010 with many new benefits and exciting features to golf courses. This will be offered through short term rental options to meet the financial structure and cash flows of our customers ,” said Phil Lewin who can be contacted by email at phil@gpsieurope.com or by telephone on +44 1323 504446.
GPS Industries www.gpsindustries.com