Orange Buys Ocean to Dominate with M2M-Enabled Fleet

French firm Orange Business Services on April 16 announced that it will purchase fleet management company Ocean and create a more than 100,000-vehicle fleet with the combined assets.

Ocean was founded in 2003 and quickly became one of the leaders in the French fleet management and vehicle tracking solutions market. The company will now become part of the Orange Applications for Business digital services division specializing in connected objects, the digitalization of customer experience, Big Data and data analytics.

Orange’s fleet management division launched in 2005 with M2M implementations from the beginning and adding in Ocean will make the combined unit a force to be reckoned with in the European Markets. Jacques Riviere, current President of Ocean, will lead the unit.

Internet of Things and M2M are key drivers of companies’ digital transformation strategies. The new unit will focus on two key areas moving forward: maintain current vertical expertise in tracking solutions, maintenance and troubleshooting, equipment rental and green spaces; and developing new fleet management services and more new solutions for connected objects and how to implement them into fleet management services.

“With the acquisition of such an innovative and powerful leader as Ocean, we are creating a new European leader in Fleet Management that will support the growth strategy of Orange Applications for Business on the connected objects and M2M markets,” said Thierry Bonhomme, Executive Director of Orange Business Services. “Through these advanced technologies, companies managing fleets of vehicles or equipment can leverage huge benefits that will facilitate their digital transformation and develop new processes and business models.”

"The project with Orange, which is based on the technical platform recently developed by Ocean, will give us the opportunity to pursue our growth by building on our core success factor: a unique organization and development model," added Jacques Riviere, President of Ocean.