Omnitracs announced Sept. 2 it had agreed to acquire XRS Corp., Minneapolis, in a deal valued at $178 million. Approved unanimously by XRS’ board of directors, the deal is expected to be finalized by the fourth quarter of this year.

The deal was attractive to Omnitracs “on a lot of levels,” John Graham, Omnitracs CEO said in an interview following the announcement. “We like the people and we like the technology. We like what they’ve done in mobility.”

Graham said the XRS technology “maps to some of the things we’d like to do,” but stressed it will augment Omnitrac’s product line and not replace it.

He said that Omnitracs will continue to focus on the mid-market customers that have been the company’s traditional focus. “But we think that telematics has great demand in private fleets and smaller firms. We want to be able to address all aspects of the market with our

portfolio.”

Adding XRS’s products to the company’s portfolio helps in that regard, as did Omnitrac’s acquisition Omnitracs expands product portfolio with XRS acquisition of Roadnet Technologies last December, Graham said. “We didn’t really have products to address the needs of our Roadnet customers,” before that deal. “We want to address the whole marketplace.”

As for XRS, Graham said that the company offers “a lot of mobility technologies and experience” and that its staff can augment what Omnitracs is doing. “I look at it as kind of force multiplier.”

The company recently announced plans to move its headquarters to Dallas next year, but will retain engineering and other offices in San Diego while also keeping XRS’s operations in Minneapolis. Roadnet is based in Baltimore while Sylectus, another Omnitracs company, has offices in Michigan and Canada. The move to Dallas was to “add balance” in our North American operations, Graham said. “We have a strong North American presence for our businesses and our customers. Being in Dallas, we can get around North America and Latin America easily.”

“What we are trying to do is bring energy and investment to Omnitracs, continue to support our customer base and grow in the market,” Graham said in explaining the company’s recent moves. “Our commitment is to continue to invest in our technologies and continue to keep our eyes open for acquisitions down the road.”

A conference featuring all of Omnitrac’s products lines is planned for February in Dallas. The conference will be different in that all of its businesses will be involved, Graham said. “We’ll be able to show our full portfolio — I want all of our customers to see our entire product portfolio.”