Topcon in Italian dealer acquisition

Surveying and GPS positioning equipment manufacturer Topcon Europe Positioning has acquired a controlling stake in its long-standing Italian dealer Geotop.

Geotop, which became a Topcon distributor in 1980 and started distributing the manufacturer's Sokkia product line in 2011, owns more than 200 global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) reference stations in Italy, creating NetGEO, one of Europe's largest GNSS networks.

As well as owning five service centres and a monitoring centre in Italy, it also has a software company, GeoPro, which develops software for GNSS, geographical intelligent survey (GIS), monitoring and total station applications.

Geotop joins four other companies that Topcon owns in Italy - Topcon Tierra, Topcon Infomobility and GeoPro.

Ivan Di Federico, president and CEO of Geotop Italy, said, "The addition of Geotop not only adds to Topcon's presence in Italy, but emphasises the synergistic opportunities we have with all companies working closely together to provide products and services to customers and potential customers."

The news comes after rival surveying and GPS positioning equipment manufacturer Trimble earlier this month expanded its presence in the US with the acquisition of software provider TMW Systems US$ 335 million.