In acquiring a maker of underwater robots, Bolt Technology Corp. is adding a product line that allows it to diversify from a heavy reliance on the energy industry ”“ and it”™s a fast-growth product line at that.
Norwalk-based Bolt Technology disclosed additional details of its acquisition of SeaBotix Inc., stating it paid $10 million for the San Diego-based company and could owe up to $20 million more if SeaBotix reaches certain revenue levels or hits other milestones.
SeaBotix makes remotely operated undersea vehicles (ROV) roughly the size and shape of a household emergency power generator, used for applications ranging from oceanographic research, to monitoring fish in aquaculture farms, to conducting inspections of nuclear reactor cooling pools and even to rescuing drowning swimmers.
After an earthquake devastated Haiti just over a year ago, the U.S. Army deployed SeaBotix ROVs in advance of divers to inspect underwater structures at Port-au-Prince.
SeaBotix founder Don Rodocker previously led a British startup called Hydrovision Ltd. Rodocker saw the potential for a small, low-cost ROV and came up with the idea for SeaBotix”™s “Little Benthic Vehicles,” the word benthic referring to the ecological zone at the deepest section of a body of water.
SeaBotix sells its ROVs through a small network of dedicated distributors, including Advex Marine in Old Saybrook L.L.C.
If Connecticut is known for building submarines at Electric Boat in Groton, the state also has a public link to perhaps the most famous operator of ROVs ”“ Robert Ballard, a University of Rhode Island professor whose underwater explorations have included the wreckage of the Titanic, the Bismarck and the PT gunboat captained by John F. Kennedy in World War II. Ballard founded the Institute for Exploration which is located today at Mystic Aquarium.
ROV makers in the U.S. include Deep Sea Systems International Inc. in Falmouth, Mass., where the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is located. In the U.S., Houston is home to a large cluster of ROV manufacturers and operators, the product of the offshore energy industry centered there, and California has a significant number as well.
Only last year, a San Leandro, Calif.-based ROV maker called Deep Ocean Engineering declared bankruptcy and shut down, despite its record delivering more than 600 ROVs to customers in 40 countries.
The Bolt Technology deal did not appear to be an instance of throwing SeaBotix a lifeline ”“ the ROV maker was included on the Deloitte Fast 500 list of fastest-growth technology companies in the U.S. over the previous four years, reporting $8.3 million in revenue last year.
To date, Bolt Technology has been heavily dependent on the energy industry, making devices that emit large air bubbles underwater to help oil exploration companies take seismic readings of the ocean floor. The company reported having about 125 employees as of September, down 12 percent from a year earlier.
In its first fiscal quarter ending Sept. 30, the company earned $1.4 million as sales rose 21 percent from a year earlier to $8.5 million. Bolt Technology had $76 million in total assets as of Sept. 30, just under $7 million of it in the form of cash and $11 million classified as goodwill representing the intangible value of the company.
At deadline, the company had yet to release its results in its second fiscal quarter, but CEO Raymond Soto referenced the company”™s recent business in a letter to investors.
“We started to see an increase in our business late in fiscal 2010 and we are hopeful that this momentum will continue,” Soto stated. “However, improvement in fiscal 2011 remains dependent on improved world economic growth and a minimal negative impact associated with the Deep Water Horizon incident in the Gulf of Mexico.”
