BUSINESSES ON THE MOVE
New kids on the vision block
Zebra Technologies has made sizable purchases in machine vision over the last year. Donato Montanari reveals why the firm places so much value on vision
Z
ebra Technologies’ acquisition of Matrox Imaging for $875m
has been one of the biggest in the machine vision sector this year so far. It puts Zebra firmly among the leading machine vision providers, and is testament to the growing importance of vision technology, not just in manufacturing but also in areas like e-commerce. Zebra announced its arrival on the machine vision scene in May 2021 when it introduced its own line of fixed industrial scanners and smart cameras, and acquired Adaptive Vision for $18m, the Poland-based deep learning vision software provider. At that time, Zebra also bought Fetch Robotics for $301m for its autonomous mobile robots.
But it was the Matrox Imaging
deal a year later that cemented Zebra as a major machine vision player. ‘Currently, without machine vision, around 40 per cent of Zebra’s revenue comes from transportation, logistics and the manufacturing sectors,’ Donato Montanari, Zebra Technologies’ vice president and general manager for machine vision, told Imaging and Machine Vision Europe. ‘Tey are markets we already know well; those are the markets where machine vision is important. We felt we had a strong right to play.’ He said there was also
demand from Zebra’s customers for machine vision products, which has helped the firm define its vision offerings, and that, from a technological standpoint,
12 IMAGING AND MACHINE VISION EUROPE VISION YEARBOOK 2022/23
machine vision is similar to what Zebra already produces, namely optoelectronic systems. All of this makes the addition of vision products a logical step in the company’s development. Zebra Technologies’ products
include printers for track- and-trace, mobile computing, data capture, radio frequency identification products, real- time locating systems, and now machine vision. Its history dates back to 1969, when it was founded as Data Specialties by Ed Kaplan and Gerhard Cless. Its early products were handheld laser barcode scanners and barcode printers, and then later RFID handheld scanners. In 2014, it bought Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business for $3.45bn, and in the same year became the official on-field player tracking provider for the NFL in America through its RFID technology. In 2021, the company
generated net sales of $5.627bn; it has 9,800 employees in 55 countries, 128 offices, and more than 10,000 channel partners around the world. Te family of fixed industrial
scanners and smart cameras Zebra introduced last year was designed as entry-level
products. Te acquisition of Matrox Imaging, as well as gaining more than 200 machine vision experts, adds high-end products, such as PC-based vision systems, 3D sensors and high-resolution – up to 16 megapixels – smart cameras. ‘Having a very wide portfolio
of products, both in the software and hardware domains, is critical,’ Montanari said. Zebra recognises that an important aspect of machine vision offerings is the breadth of the portfolio, as most applications require specific hardware – one camera cannot fit all markets. ‘We really saw this [Matrox
acquisition] as an opportunity to expand our offering very significantly,’ Montanari continued. ‘Now we can go to large customers, to large end users, and say we are a player that can serve almost every machine vision need that you might have.’ Montanari said the pandemic
drew ‘a sharp line’ between companies that were automated and those that were not. Te growth in e-commerce, for example, accelerated by the pandemic and the shift in consumer purchasing habits, has had a big impact on
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