Maxar to acquire Vricon

Maxar Technologies said this week it plans to exercise its option to take full ownership of Vricon, a 3D data and analytics firm that was formed as a joint venture between Maxar and Saab in 2015.

Maxar said it will pay about $140 million for the company. Once the deal closes, Maxar plans to name Gilman Louie, the chairman of Vricon's board of directors and founder of In-Q-Tel, to its board.

"Vricon's products and technology are strongly aligned with Maxar's Earth Intelligence growth strategy and priority mission areas outlined in the U.S. National Defense Strategy," Maxar said. "Maxar expects that Vricon will extend the company's lead in existing markets with additional high-value growth products, by increasing Maxar's industry-leading accuracy and augmenting automated feature extraction and change detection capabilities."

"In addition, the transaction unlocks new and underpenetrated defense and commercial markets for Maxar, such as autonomous navigation and 5G telecommunications network planning," the company added.

The company said it expects the deal to close in July.