San Diego’s Boatracs, which develops data communications and vessel monitoring technologies for the maritime industry, says it is now an independent and privately held company, after completing a spinout from AirIQ, its former Toronto-based corporate parent. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Boatracs was one of the first San Diego companies to adopt Qualcomm technology. It was founded in 1990 to develop data communications technology for the maritime industry that Qualcomm (NASDAQ: [[ticker:QCOM]]) had originally created for the trucking industry. Two decades later, Boatracs says its core data communications products are still based on Qualcomm’s wireless Omnitracs and OmniVision satellite solutions. In its statement, Boatracs says it is now the leading provider of integrated communications and software in maritime markets for inland workboats, offshore supply vessels, commercial fishing, and government vessels.
Boatracs CEO Irwin Rodrigues tells me by email: “Boatracs was never a part of Qualcomm, but did get created out of an exclusive relationship with them to serve the maritime market back in 1990 with the Omnitracs product. That relationship is still in force and stronger than ever today. AirIQ purchased Boatracs in 2004 and this past December 2009, sold Boatracs to myself and a private equity company. At the time of the spin-off, Boatracs had 7 employees. We now have 14 employees and will continue to grow that number steadily throughout the year.”
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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