Peter Maire says there is good expertise in New Zealand for his plans. Photo / Greg Bowker
Entrepreneur Peter Maire wants to buy back part of Navman - the company he founded, and sold for $108 million in 2004.
The company was yesterday broken up by its US owners who are selling it off in pieces.
Maire sold Navman - the navigation technology company he
founded in his Auckland garage in 1986 - to American marine and leisure products giant Brunswick.
However, Brunswick put its New Technologies division, including Navman, up for sale last year and has found a buyer.
Norwegian company Navico International will buy the marine electronics operations including Northstar, MX Marine and Navman marine brands.
The remaining divisions of Navman - portable navigation devices and fleet management - are up for grabs.
Maire wants to buy back the fleet-tracking business, including a commercial Global Positioning Systems (GPS) solutions division.
Fleet tracking gives companies with a large number of vehicles the ability to follow their every move from head office.
Through his Tahia Investments vehicle Maire has made a range of hi-tech investments, taking stakes in Rakon and payment technology company Cadmus. "The whole reason I got interested in Cadmus was my investment into the fleet tracking business [at Navman] and this is about taking mobile payment into that fleet tracking product," Maire said.
"Your plumber, your electrician can finish the job and take a credit card and get paid on the spot."
Mobile e-commerce was a huge market and there was good expertise in New Zealand, he said. Navman's fleet tracking business was a major player in Britain but did not yet incorporate payment technology, he added.
Maire said Brunswick had finally accepted it would be difficult to sell Navman as one company.
"This is something that I tried to ram home to Brunswick management nine months ago," he said.
"I took them a plan to break it up and sell it and I brought all the [potential] buyers along and they didn't really listen."
The sale value of the marine electronics operations to Navico was not disclosed.
