AeroVironment acquired Planck Aerosystems, Inc. for $5.105 million (plus a $0.5 million holdback), a transaction completed in August 2022, structured as Asset purchase: total purchase price of $5,105,000 from cash on hand plus a $500,000 holdback; treated as an asset acquisition for tax purposes.
Planck Aerosystems, Inc. operates in Unmanned aircraft navigation / autonomy (MUAS segment), is based in San Diego, California, United States, had revenue of about Approximately $0.368 million of revenue recognized by AeroVironment from the August 17, 2022 acquisition through April 30, 2023. AeroVironment acquired certain assets of Planck Aerosystems, Inc., a San Diego, California-based provider of advanced unmanned-aircraft navigation and flight-autonomy solutions. Its ACE (Autonomous Control Engine) enables safe autonomous takeoff and landing from moving platforms on land or at sea in GPS-denied environments, and its AVEM product is a fully integrated mobile tethered sensor platform for persistent autonomous operation from moving vehicles and vessels. AeroVironment paid a total purchase price of $5.105 million from cash on hand plus a $500,000 holdback, and incorporated Planck into its medium UAS (MUAS) segment.
Planck's flight-autonomy technology strengthened AeroVironment's autonomy roadmap and could be integrated across its offerings to enable safe autonomous operation from moving land and maritime platforms in GPS-denied conditions.
A small, technology-focused team whose flight-autonomy IP (ACE) directly advanced AeroVironment's autonomous takeoff/landing capabilities for medium UAS. Medium UAS (MUAS) segment Planck was incorporated into the MUAS segment to integrate its flight-autonomy solutions such as ACE into AeroVironment's product offerings; results were not significant to fiscal 2023.
Advisory firms were not disclosed for this transaction.