u-blox Acquires IoT Communication-as-a-Service Provider Thingstream

u-blox, a global provider of leading positioning and wireless communication technologies, today announced it has acquired Thingstream, an IoT Communication-as-a-Service provider.

Thingstream provides a solution designed for global IoT connectivity the uses the standard MQTT protocol, and offers it “as-a-service” in order to provide predictable cost and on-demand scalability, the release stated.

Message queuing telemetry transport, or MQTT, has become a widely used data transfer protocol in the IOT. It is designed for constrained environments characterized by low power and bandwidth requirements, and transmits messages from one device to one or many others via a broker. Thingstream’s MQTT Anywhere service reportedly offers data transfer across more than 600 telecom carriers in 190 countries using 2G, 3G, LTE, and LTE-M networks.

“The acquisition of Thingstream and its platform accelerates u-blox’s entry into a new dimension of our services business, the IoT Sphere, which will provide customers with a reliable, smart and secure solution to connect sensor data to their cloud enterprise,” said Thomas Seiler, CEO, u-blox. “Our customers can focus on scaling their business rather than the complexities of acquiring and establishing a connectivity platform and maintaining the data flow management.”

u-blox said that the addition of Thingstream’s high-performing team of 26 qualified staff will bring decades of experience in telecom services and IoT, augmenting u-blox’s functional teams in R&D and sales and marketing. It acquired the company for $10.3 million, plus coverage for some deferred staff retention. The acquisition has been successfully closed.