Trimble to Enhance its Office-to-Field Platform with the Acquisition of Google’s SketchUp

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire SketchUp®, one of the most popular 3D modeling tools in the world, from Google (NASDAQ: GOOG). The transaction is expected to close in the second quarter of 2012, subject to customary closing conditions and expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act. While financial terms are not being disclosed the transaction is not expected to be material to 2012 earnings per share.

SketchUp is currently used by millions of users annually—ranging from architects to engineering and construction firms to building and design professionals—for designing, modeling and visualizing projects. The SketchUp product and its vision of "3D modeling for everyone" has allowed modelers worldwide, across a wide range of industries, to express design concepts easily, accurately and efficiently. Additionally, SketchUp users benefit from its extensive third-party developer community that provides industry-specific solutions for a variety of customers.

As part of the SketchUp platform, Trimble will also partner with Google on running and further developing SketchUp's 3D Warehouse, an online repository where users can find, share, store and collaborate on 3D models. The site enables users to create collections of models, including 3D Buildings, and share them with fellow modelers around the world. Individual models can be loaded, saved and viewed in 3D from within SketchUp or a web browser. For the foreseeable future, Google will host and operate the 3D Warehouse for Trimble and together the companies will continue to offer the same capabilities, functions and services that are offered today. The ability for users to submit 3D Buildings for potential acceptance and viewing in Google Earth will be maintained. Currently the 3D Warehouse has almost two million user-generated models.

"SketchUp and the corresponding 3D Warehouse provide an important element of our long term strategy by enhancing the integration of our field presence with the wider enterprise," said Bryn Fosburgh, Trimble vice president. "Trimble has already created the de-facto standard for field data models and project management tools for our key markets. SketchUp, together with these existing capabilities, will provide a stand-alone and enterprise solution that will enable an integrated and seamless workflow to reduce rework and improve productivity for the customer. Users will be able to collect data, design, model, and collaborate on one platform. The combined capability will enhance our ability to extend our existing market applications including the cadastral, heavy civil, and building and construction industries. In addition, the SketchUp platform will enable Trimble, third-party developers and our distribution partners to efficiently develop new applications."

"Since its inception, the SketchUp team has been committed to providing a robust, user-centric solution to its community and we look forward to engaging their talent and expertise. Beyond extending the reach of the product into Trimble's commercial markets, we are committed to continuing to provide SketchUp as a free version to millions of users. Trimble and Google will also continue to collaborate on utilizing other Google tools for Trimble's markets that, along with SketchUp, will provide our customers innovative and productive tools that transform their work," concluded Fosburgh.

"In Trimble, we found a partner that will grow SketchUp in a way that best supports the SketchUp team and our users," said Brian McClendon, Google's vice president of engineering. "While at Google, the SketchUp community grew significantly because the team put users first, and we are confident they will continue to do so at Trimble. We at Google look forward to a continued partnership with Trimble and the SketchUp team."

As a part of Google, SketchUp's charter was to empower a worldwide community of users to create 3D models for whatever their imagination could envision. Examples range from household furniture to famous stadiums and other buildings. These users come from a variety of backgrounds, with a large part of SketchUp's user community coming from a professional architectural or engineering and construction background. As a part of Trimble, SketchUp will continue to support all of its current users through its Web site at: http://sketchup.google.com. Concurrently, the SketchUp engine will be integrated into Trimble's current solutions in its Engineering and Construction, Field Solutions and Mobile Solutions segments.

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Trimble Acquires Gatewing to Expand its Survey Solutions to Include Aerial Mapping

Trimble (NASDAQ:TRMB) announced today that it has acquired privately-held Gatewing of Gent, Belgium, a provider of lightweight unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for photogrammetry and rapid terrain mapping applications. The acquisition broadens Trimble's industry-leading platforms for surveying solutions. Financial terms were not disclosed.

UAVs in combination with photogrammetry are an emerging technology providing an innovative platform for flexible aerial imagery acquisition. Easy to use and flexible, UAVs provide users the ability to create orthophotos and Digital Surface Models (DSM) from aerial imagery for mid-sized areas previously only accessible at higher costs and with longer planning cycles. UAVs are used in a variety of applications including preliminary surveys for corridors and rights-of-way, volumetric surveys, high-level topographic surveys, land fill inspection, and much more.

Gatewing's solutions include the X100 UAV and Stretchout desktop software for digital image processing and analysis. The X100 is an ultra-light, 2 kg (approximately 4.4 lbs) class UAV that allows fast and simple image acquisition. It consists of an airframe; an integrated GPS, inertial system and a radio; a 10 megapixel camera; and battery. Using the Trimble® Yuma® tablet computer, a predefined area is planned and the flight of the UAV is fully automated from launch to landing. The terrain is mapped through parallel flight paths and consecutive, overlapping camera shots during flight. The ground control station (GCS) is used to monitor the mission and allows an on-site image quality check. In addition, the GCS provides the operator with the option to intervene and abort the flight if needed. The image set consists of a number of digital images that are tagged with the GPS coordinates.

Designed to be intuitive and easy to use, Gatewing's Stretchout desktop software uses advanced computer vision technology which automates raw image processing to deliver georeferenced orthophotos and accurate DSM. As an alternative to the desktop software, users can upload images to Gatewing's cloud solution, which automatically processes the images based on the users' requirements. After a few hours, users can download their georeferenced orthophotos and DSMs from the cloud server including feedback about the results for quality assurance.

"The combination of UAVs and low-altitude photogrammetry as an image collection platform opens up new opportunities for surveyors to use aerial imagery for the rapid acquisition of high-density geospatial data," said Anders Rhodin, director of Trimble's Survey Business. "We are excited to add Gatewing's unique aerial mapping system to Trimble's portfolio of survey solutions."

"The Gatewing team is excited about the new ownership," said Maarten Vandenbroucke, CEO and one of three founders of Gatewing. "For Trimble to see the value in unmanned aerial systems for surveying and mapping applications means that the industry is truly ready for this exciting new technology. We are enthusiastic about how UAVs can revolutionize the landscape and open a complete new spectrum in remote sensing applications. I believe that being a part of Trimble will accelerate the pace in which UAVs will further be adopted by professionals."

Founded in 2008, Gatewing designs and provides one of the world's fastest and easiest to use remote sensing solutions for the surveying and mapping industry. Based on its revolutionary X100 lightweight unmanned aircraft, Gatewing has built a solution for rapid terrain mapping that consists of image acquisition field operation and fully digital and automated image processing. By making this technology highly accessible in terms of price and ease of use, Gatewing's goal is to revolutionize the surveying and mapping industry.

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, Calif.

Trimble Outdoors Launches Backpacker Map Maker App for iPad

Trimble (NASDAQ: TRMB) and Backpacker magazine released Backpacker Map Maker, a mapping and trip planning app for the Apple iPad. Now, from the touch-screen of an iPad, hikers and backpackers can find wild places, plot GPS points and plan their next adventure over seamless topographical maps.

"Our readers absolutely love maps. As avid backcountry explorers and GPS users, they like to view, create and annotate their topos, and with Map Maker, they can now harness the beauty and power of their tablets to experience maps in an extraordinary and dynamic way," said Jonathan Dorn, editor-in-chief of Backpacker, and vice president, AIM Outdoor Group. "Map Maker is a portable, practical tool for hikers, a great way to relive their adventures, and the perfect complement to GPS Trails, our smartphone navigation app for in-the-field use."

Backpacker Map Maker begins with best-in-class maps for hikers in the U.S. and Canada. In addition to aerial, hybrid, street and terrain maps, the app provides access to more than 68,000 USGS topo maps stitched together and enhanced by MyTopo. The app has a full-line of other features for the hiker, including:

Place search: Find popular peaks, campgrounds, trailheads, mountain passes, creeks, lakes and more from a list of more than 10 million places.

Dual maps: Turn on dual map mode and view two map types at once for more precise trip planning. For instance, view street maps to find access roads to the trailhead then fade to topo maps to check out the detailed topography.

Cloud-based trips: Save trips to a backpacker.com account and access them from anywhere with an Internet connection. Hikers can also plan trips in Map Maker and then open and navigate in the Backpacker GPS Trails app, an in-field navigation app for iPhone and Android.

Mark waypoints: Simply drag-and-drop GPS waypoints onto the map. Add notes too.

Ruler tool: Measure how far it is from the trailhead to your campsite to a mountain summit and beyond.

Digital compass: See a full-screen translucent compass overlaid on the maps.

GPS coordinates: Display latitude/longitude coordinates in three formats: DD, DDM and DMS. Or, view coordinates in UTM, the metric-based coordinate system preferred by the U.S. military and Backpacker editors. Backpacker publishes trail-based coordinates for nearly every destination article in the magazine.

"We are excited to add an iPad product to the successful line of Backpacker outdoor adventure apps. Backpacker readers can surf gorgeous topos and plan out trips in any park or wilderness in the U.S. and Canada, and then carry that trip with them using GPS Trails on their iPhone or Android smartphone," said Rich Rudow, general manager for Trimble Outdoors.

Backpacker Map Maker for the Apple iPad and iPad2 is available for download now from the Apple App Store at: www.backpacker.com/mapmaker.

About Backpacker

Backpacker brings the outdoors to readers' doorsteps, inspiring and empowering them to get out and enjoy nature more often. The authority on active adventure, Backpacker is the world's first GPS-enabled magazine, and the only magazine whose editors personally test the hiking trails, camping gear, and survival tips they publish. Backpacker is published by Active Interest Media (www.aimmedia.com), has a circulation of 340,000, and is published nine times per year. www.Backpacker.com.

About Trimble Outdoors

Trimble Outdoors, a Trimble business, develops GPS-enabled mobile apps and map solutions for fitness and outdoor enthusiasts. Its popular apps—Trimble Outdoors™, AllSport GPS™, Geocache Navigator™, Cabela's Recon™ Hunt, and Backpacker GPS Trails—run on more than 300 mobile devices worldwide and help consumers navigate on trails and off-road, track fitness workouts, find caches and more. Trimble Outdoors is also a leading provider of print and digital maps for hikers, hunters, and campers via the MyTopo brand. By leveraging Trimble's 30 years of commercial expertise in GPS, software, and communications, Trimble Outdoors delivers cost-effective and convenient position-based services that promote consumers' well-being, security and active lifestyles. For more information about Trimble Outdoors, visitwww.TrimbleOutdoors.com.

About Trimble

Trimble applies technology to make field and mobile workers in businesses and government significantly more productive. Solutions are focused on applications requiring position or location—including surveying, construction, agriculture, fleet and asset management, public safety and mapping. In addition to utilizing positioning technologies, such as GPS, lasers and optics, Trimble solutions may include software content specific to the needs of the user. Wireless technologies are utilized to deliver the solution to the user and to ensure a tight coupling of the field and the back office. Founded in 1978, Trimble is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.