Garmin makes another aquisition

[skipmac]

Have a Vesper AIS so on their mailing list. Just got an email announcing they were purchased by Garmin. Seems like Garmin is out there buying everything in sight. Hope they don't change Vesper product support to the same model they use on their own systems.

[rgleason]

I never like to see great innovative companies like Vesper bought up by goliaths like Garmin. How will Garmin change the development process and try to make it proprietary to their equipment? I am a little disappointed at this point, without knowing why, and not knowing enough about the acquisition terms.


Without knowing what is in the works, I think a really good effective and inexpensive waterproof PLB by Vesper would be a useful addition so that it could penetrate a larger pleasure boat market.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I never like to see great innovative companies like Vesper bought up by goliaths like Garmin. How will Garmin change the development process and try to make it proprietary to their equipment? I am a little disappointed at this point, without knowing why, and not knowing enough about the acquisition terms.


Without knowing what is in the works, I think a really good effective and inexpensive waterproof PLB by Vesper would be a useful addition so that it could penetrate a larger pleasure boat market.

Don't disagree. It could go either way. Probably great for the owners of Vesper but no telling how it will play out for the customers. In my industry I have seen a lot of buyouts where a big company buys a smaller one to either shut them down and eliminate a competitor or to take the smaller companies technology to potentially integrate that into their main line of products.

I do have a serious love/hate relationship with Garmin. On one hand I love their products, they're easy to use, for the most part intuitive and very reliable. BUT they drop support on products sometimes in a year or two if you are unlucky enough to buy a model that's already been in the catalog for a couple of years.

Had a handheld GPS I had owned for maybe 2-3 years and managed to lose the chip with the charts. Garmin could not even supply a new chip, making the GPS worthless since the built in base charts show nothing but a vague outline of the land. Their only suggestion, buy a new GPS. Fortunately I found a hacker online that was selling Garmin chart chips so got one from him.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I never like to see great innovative companies like Vesper bought up by goliaths like Garmin. How will Garmin change the development process and try to make it proprietary to their equipment? I am a little disappointed at this point, without knowing why, and not knowing enough about the acquisition terms.


Without knowing what is in the works, I think a really good effective and inexpensive waterproof PLB by Vesper would be a useful addition so that it could penetrate a larger pleasure boat market.

Its the standard business model, in tech at least, since the late 90's. Create a start up around some innovative niche product/service, get through a round or two of financing, find a buyer, take those options and go sailing.

And it's Garmin's business model as well, and they've been successful at it in all sorts of markets. I have an $8,000 GPS in my airplane and the chart/terrain data updates are hellaciously expensive (I don't use them as my EFIS has the same data at $250/year).

We all complain about Garmin's model, but they keep selling units.

[rgleason]

Our first handheld Garmin GPS48 replacing our King Loran was superb, but support was quickly dropped and I was able to replace the embedded battery and keep it going up to its epidemis year. Then we turned to other companies for GPS.

I don't like the idea of the guys behind Vesper pocketing cash and sailing away, that is not my idea of building a company and providing service. I hope those Kiwi's have a better sense of themselves to do that and have retained relatively autonomous control of this important sub-unit of Garmin.


..and thinking about it, I don't think they would do it without having some control...

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by rgleason

..and thinking about it, I don't think they would do it without having some control...

Actually in all the buyouts I'm familiar with in other industries it was a requirement of the deal for key management and tech staff to stay on board for some period of time. Key personnel usually a minimum of two years. Sales managers and second tier key staff a minimum of one year.

On the other side of this, some buyouts merge the smaller company into the larger where it eventually disappears but some maintain the culture and autonomy of the smaller company.

Guess we'll see how it goes with Vesper.

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

We all complain about Garmin's model, but they keep selling units.

Very true. I believe because they do offer an excellent product at a reasonable price.

However there's no denying that they have alienated plenty of Garmin customers with their lack of support for previous model units. If it wasn't for that I would recommend Garmin without hesitation. As it is, anyone that asks I recommend Garmin with a caveat.

[shimari]

I'm a fan of the Cortex, and I suspect that's the main reason Garmin acquired Vesper. Hopefully, Garmin will let them continue down the path they've planned. Customer service will likely get worse.

Coincidentally, Milltech marine was acquired by the (presumingly outgoing) global sales director of Vesper (Jason Young) today. Doug Miller was always great to deal with and provided some of the best customer service in the business. Good luck to both!

[Marathon1150]

We have several Vesper products and until recently, their customer service was excellent. My last experience in November 2021 was sub-par and may have been a result of the impending change in ownership. They could not or would not provide advice and were not interested in trying to find a part for one of their older products (Watchmate 650).

Ditto for Milltech - outstanding customer support. Hopefully the old Vesper approach will carry over to Milltech with the new ex-Vesper owner.

[goboatingnow]

Garmin will integrate vesper and make it Garmin like. They don’t really run parallel lines.

[Cool Hand Luke]

And I just bought a Vesper Cortex... FML... am I really SOL (crap outta luck)?

[Sailshabby]

Originally Posted by rgleason

I never like to see great innovative companies like Vesper bought up by goliaths like Garmin. How will Garmin change the development process and try to make it proprietary to their equipment? I am a little disappointed at this point, without knowing why, and not knowing enough about the acquisition terms.


Without knowing what is in the works, I think a really good effective and inexpensive waterproof PLB by Vesper would be a useful addition so that it could penetrate a larger pleasure boat market.

Well, since they bought up Navionics a couple years ago and I haven’t seen anything that’ll integrate with my Garmin chart plotter yet, I think we’ve got some cushion.

[shimari]

Originally Posted by Cool Hand Luke

And I just bought a Vesper Cortex... FML... am I really SOL (crap outta luck)?

I did as well. Hopefully, the only downside is that the equipment will be EOL'd much earlier than Vesper.

[svfinlandia]

I view Garmin as a predator.
I am really sorry to hear about the sale as I suspect that they will screw up with Vesper the same way they did with Active Captain.
Now I wish I had not purchased my new Vesper a few months ago.
I, for one, will never buy a Garmin product.

Al, S/V Finlandia

[CCCruiser]

Originally Posted by skipmac

Have a Vesper AIS so on their mailing list. Just got an email announcing they were purchased by Garmin. Seems like Garmin is out there buying everything in sight. Hope they don't change Vesper product support to the same model they use on their own systems.

Installed a Garmin MFD as my first unit. Loved the interface. Then they
went to Bluechart2 and obsoleted my charts.I sold the boat so

Loaded mobile Bluecharts on my tablet and they dropped support.

I will never buy a Garmin product again.

I have a Vesper 8000 AIS unit. Great product. You can figure out what is going
to happen to us who have these products.

By the way Raymarine is no better. They are dropping support fast too. They no long support for Raycharts for my 2 eSeries units which were installed in 2015 at great expense. Fortunately, Navionics and C-Map are still offering current charts