Weldon, Williams & Lick Completes Acquisition of Worldwide Ticketcraft
Erik Covitz, Founder and CEO of Worldwide Ticketcraft (WWTC), and Jim Walcott, President and CEO of Weldon, Williams & Lick Inc. (WW&L), jointly announced the closing of WW&L’s acquisition of WWTC to better serve their respective customers.
This move will consolidate the entrepreneurial drive of WWTC with the strength and capacity of WW&L, they said. Combining the best practices of each company will offer the admissions industry a full suite of products and smart solution choices.
Worldwide Ticketcraft will remain in Boynton Beach, FL, and continue to serve its customers with an expanded product line. Covitz will be VP of Market Development for WW&L, where he will focus on bringing new products and services to the customers of both companies.
“This is very exciting news for our customers and employees,” Walcott said. “It’s truly an honor to have the opportunity to join with Erik Covitz and his entire [WWTC] team.”
Covitz said, “The resources that WW&L brings to our company and customers will drive our future growth and new opportunities for our employees.”
An industry leader in ticket design and printing for more than 100 years, WW&L offers a complete array of admission tickets, parking permits, event ticket printing and distribution services, hang tags, credentials, kiosks, and RFID products. Founded in 1999, WWTC is a customer-focused, service-driven leader in the ticket design and printing business.
[Source: Worldwide Ticketcraft]
Inrix Powers World’s First On-Street Parking Service In a ‘Connected’ Car
Inrix Inc., the world leader in “connected” car services and transportation analytics, has announced the availability of its On-Street Parking service in the new BMW 5 Series Sedan. This represents the industry’s first real-time, on-street parking service in a connected car, which uses historical and up-to-the-minute parking data to predict the availability of parking spaces.
According to the recent INRIX Connected & Autonomous Vehicle Consumer Survey (www2.inrix.com/research-cav), 72% of respondents said real-time parking availability is the navigation feature they desire the most.
“Real-time parking is the most sought-after navigation feature, because it addresses a ‘pain point’ that affects everyone,” said Joe Berry, VP and GM of Automotive. “The first automotive deployment of Inrix On-Street Parking [service] solidifies BMW’s position at the forefront of connected car technology, with a focus on delivering the services drivers want the most.”
The BMW 5 Series also includes a real-time traffic service, powered by Inrix in North America, for up-to-the-minute and predictive traffic flow information for routes, travel times, and alerts to accidents and incidents on more than five million miles of roads. It incorporates information from the company’s network of more than 300 million connected vehicles and devices in 40-plus countries.
[Source: Inrix Inc.]
WGI Acquires Carl Walker Inc.,
Structures Continued Growth
Design, planning and surveying firm Wantman Group Inc. (WGI) has joined forces with Carl Walker Inc., an award-winning parking consulting and structural engineering provider. The move creates a 12th business division for WGI, now a national consulting firm with offices in Florida, Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, North Carolina and Texas.
The transaction closed on June 30, 2017, said David Wantman, PE, President and CEO of WGI. He added that Gary Cudney, PE, President and CEO, and all Carl Walker principals, executives and associates would continue in their current roles, ensuring a smooth transition.
Carl Walker specializes in the planning and design of sustainable parking structures, supported by the rapidly changing automation technology transforming its marketplace. The firm’s diverse portfolio includes airports, universities, municipalities, hospitals, sporting arenas, shopping and urban plazas, mixed-use developments, and cultural centers.
In welcoming Carl Walker to the WGI team, Wantman said, “We are excited about the expanded national presence and capabilities that Carl Walker brings to our firm and our diverse infrastructure team. Its 34 years of innovative designs and solutions will provide a wonderful complement to the innovative and collaborative team at WGI. We’re thrilled at the synergy and opportunities that await.”
Founded in 1983 in Kalamazoo, MI, by H. Carl Walker, PE, the firm is considered one of the originators in the design of long-span, prestressed, modern-day parking garages, and is now a leader in delivering superior-value parking solutions.
Combined, the national firm will operate from 13 offices in six states, and serve an active client base in more than 30 states. With this third acquisition in three years, WGI expands to nearly 400 associates, further signaling its plans for strong and steady growth.
Earlier this year, WGI completed an 18,000-square-foot expansion to its 14,000-square-foot national headquarters in West Palm Beach, FL, with expansion plans underway or recently completed for its offices in Miami, Tampa, Orlando, Tallahassee and Jacksonville, FL.
[Source: Wantman Group Inc.]
Panasonic, TransitScreen Form Alliance On Advanced ‘Connected’ Technologies
The Panasonic Corp. of North America and TransitScreen Inc. have formed a strategic alliance to bring advanced Internet of Things (IoT) applications to “smart cities” around the U.S. The agreement is designed to provide city residents and visitors with real-time transit and transportation information to enable more informed commuting and travel decisions.
The partnership extends both companies’ missions to use technology to make lives easier. Combining Panasonic’s CityNOW platform solutions with TransitScreen’s experience in simplifying complex data, software development and personalized, human-centric design, the two companies will transform the infrastructure supporting urban transportation.
“At Panasonic, we’re committed to building a ‘connected’ world that will improve quality of life for people around the globe,” said Tom Gebhardt, Chairman and CEO of Panasonic NA. “Partnering with TransitScreen allows [us] to augment [our] CityNOW solutions in transportation and mobility with rich transportation data, supporting all types of mobility customers. [Their] IoT technologies will create a smoother, more seamless experience … in key cities by providing people with the transit and local event information they need right when they need it.”
The technology provides real-time, multi-screen displays detailing transit arrival times, local points of interest, and live events at transit agencies, “smart” bus shelters, airports, street kiosks, stadiums and arenas, municipal buildings, and university stadiums.
United Nations estimates suggest that the urban population will increase by 2.5 billion people by 2050. As people flock to cities, getting from point A to point B will only become more complex. This business partnership, the companies said, will leverage connectivity, “big data” and analytics technologies to reduce congestion and travel time, lower transportation-related emissions and promote walkability.
“Panasonic is one of the iconic brands of the digital era. Combining [its] nearly 100-year history with our team’s creativity and design capabilities will create remarkable opportunities for innovation,” said Matt Caywood, TransitScreen Co-Founder and CEO. “With Panasonic as our hardware, solutions and integration partner, we will have the chance to bring our human-centric technologies to a national scale.”
The partnership will kick off in Denver with integration into Panasonic’s CityNOW base at Peña Station Next, a connected community leveraging the company’s smart and sustainable technologies to support residents, businesses and visitors. The partnership will scale to other U.S. cities in the future.
[Sources: Panasonic and TransitScreen]
T2 Systems Buys ParkingSoft
T2 Systems announced it has acquired ParkingSoft. ParkingSoft provides cloud-based software enabled PARCS (Parking Access Revenue Control Systems), valet and events products with state-of-the-art features such as barcode and LPR.
Based in Atlanta, ParkingSoft brought to market the first software as a service (SaaS) barcode-only PARCS system, which greatly enhances a parking owner’s ability to monitor, manage and maintain their PARCS equipment—resulting in lower operating effort with industry-leading flexibility via open APIs. ParkingSoft has a wide array of customers in the airport, off-airport, healthcare, commercial/mixed use, municipal, university and transit sectors. These products support a full range of parking garage operations, from a single location to a full enterprise operation.
This acquisition expands T2’s product offerings by adding a PARCS solution that can stand alone or integrate with the T2 UNIFI parking management platform. By combining T2’s parking management platform with ParkingSoft’s established products, T2 is the best choice with the broadest, most flexible portfolio for parking professionals throughout North America. T2 will further enhance the already capable ParkingSoft solution by integrating it into T2 link.
“Our unified platform is transforming parking operations, creating opportunities for parking operations to link together all the tools and resources they need in a single, open platform. ParkingSoft has a well-established product line that’s been rapidly growing and fits perfectly within our UNIFI parking management platform,” said T2 CEO Adam Blake.
Blake added, “ParkingSoft’s reputation for delivering proven software enabled products combined with our UNIFI parking management platform will allow us to deliver the most powerful solutions and the highest quality service to both our existing and new customers. We couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities ahead of us.”
T2 was acquired in 2016 by Thoma Bravo, LLC, a leading private equity investment firm. “When we acquired T2, we knew that strategic partnerships and acquisitions would be key to increase the company’s market footprint and accelerate its growth,” said Carl Press, a Vice President at Thoma Bravo. “This deal will expand T2’s customer base and usher in enhanced products and functionality for its customers. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”
T2, based in Indianapolis, develops comprehensive platforms to make parking management and enforcement as seamless as possible. Its UNIFI parking management platform provides a full suite of technology solutions to increase efficiency, improve ease of parking management and boost revenue for its users. Over 1,000 customers—including universities, municipalities and private operators—rely on T2 for multi-space pay stations, permit management, enforcement, PARCS, business intelligence, vehicle counting, citation services and event parking.
(Source: T2 and Thoma Bravo)
