Pandora wrote: In December, 2013 Land O' Lakes acquired Geosys, an international satellite imagery and remote sensing service provider headquartered in Toulouse, France and having offices in So Paulo, Brazil, Melbourne, Australia, and Plymouth, Minnesota. Geosys continues to work with WinField to develop a web-based decision making tool enabling its members to view remote sensing maps based on Normalized Difference Vegetative Index (NDVI), a measure of green biomass. Users of the web-based platform can see, at the field level, the health of their crop and make decisions regarding crop inputs, as well as the ability to use precision farming (variable rate application) techniques. Geosys offers additional products and services globally.[15]
In June 2016 Land O'Lakes acquired the Thousand Oaks, California-based biofuels firm Ceres, Inc.[16]
UrtheCast to Purchase Geosys from Land O’Lakes
Artist’s rendition of UrtheDaily satellites. Photo: Urthecast
UrtheCast and Land O’Lakes have entered a binding term sheet for the purchase of Geosys Technology Holding, a wholly owned subsidiary of Land O’Lakes, for a purchase price of $20 million. This deal is expected to enhance the relationship between imagery data and geoanalytical solutions.
The closing of the transaction is subject to confirmatory due diligence, entering into definitive agreements, respective board approvals, and other conditions customary for transactions of this nature. Upon the first closing, UrtheCast will take ownership of Geosys’ software for accessing, processing, cataloguing, and retrieving of images. Land O’Lakes, through its WinField United crop inputs and insights business, will retain ownership of all intellectual property connected to its R7Tool and farm-gate applications.
Upon the first closing, UrtheCast will continue to provide Land O’Lakes with all the services currently provided by Geosys but with an expanded utilization of data once the UrtheDaily constellation is fully operational. Services would be provided by UrtheCast pursuant to a 13-year agreement with total potential fees payable to UrtheCast over the term of the agreement in excess of $100 million. The first closing is expected to occur by Nov. 6, and full completion of the transaction is expected to occur in approximately 24 months.