Verisk to Acquire PASCO's Aerial Survey Business in U.S. to Strengthen Data Acquisition Capacity under Geomni
PUBLISHED ONJuly 25, 2019 12:00 AM
JERSEY CITY, N.J., Jul 25, 2019 - (ACN Newswire) - Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK), a leading data analytics provider, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Keystone Aerial Surveys, Inc., to expand its aerial survey services. Keystone is the aerial survey business in the United States of PASCO CORPORATION (TSE:9232), Japan's largest geospatial service provider.
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with branches in California, Nevada, and Texas, Keystone provides aerial imagery and mapping services throughout the United States. The aerial survey company has expertise in the execution of projects at high and low altitudes, in all types of terrain and weather conditions, as well as in restricted airspace. It has extensive experience in contract management of large, complicated projects where quality control and communication are paramount.
Keystone will become a part of Verisk's Geomni business unit. "Bringing in Keystone is one more step demonstrating our deep commitment to constantly source fresh imagery and provide our customers with more innovative and technologically superior geospatial solutions," said Jeffrey C. Taylor, Geomni's president. "For Keystone employees and customers, it's business as usual-but now with the support of Geomni and Verisk."
Geomni, headquartered in Lehi, Utah, operates its fleet of fixed-wing aircraft from branches strategically located throughout the continental United States and Hawaii. Geomni supports several markets, including property/casualty insurance claims and underwriting, roofing and construction, and other mapping professions.
Keystone customers will benefit from expanded remote sensing resources and the highly efficient aerial survey platforms provided by Geomni.
"We want Keystone customers to know that they are still our top priority. Keystone is-and will continue to be-dedicated to providing the best services and support for our customers," said Keystone president John Schmitt. "This new venture will give Keystone resources to expand our offerings and better serve our customers."
The transaction is expected to close at the end of July, subject to the completion of customary closing conditions.
Verisk and PASCO also announced they have entered into a memorandum of understanding to explore potential areas of collaboration and identify necessary steps toward a strategic alliance to codevelop innovative solutions for the global markets (with focus in Japan and Asia) using the two companies' expertise.
Verisk provides services, such as semiautomated estimation tools for the property insurance market, that combine data analytics and geospatial information using high-resolution aerial images and image recognition AI. PASCO offers profound insights for markets in Japan and Asia using high data-acquisition capacity from satellites, aircraft, and drones. Together, the two companies, under the memorandum of understanding, will explore joint development of geospatial information solutions, taking into consideration each region's geographic and social characteristics as well as local business needs.
"PASCO is a proven global geospatial data business with a well-respected history. We look forward to exploring meaningful ways that Geomni and PASCO, along with others within the Verisk enterprise, can work to leverage PASCO's wide array of imagery sourcing and processing capabilities," said Geomni president Jeff Taylor.
"PASCO has a long-standing track record of providing customers with imagery-based solutions. We're eager to collaborate with PASCO on ways to help our current and future customers with cutting-edge remote sensing technology combined with risk analytics solutions," said Scott Stephenson, chairman, president, and CEO of Verisk.
About Keystone
Keystone specializes in providing quality aerial surveys. It has four locations: Philadelphia, Pa. (headquarters); Tyler, Tex.; Reno, Nev.; and Los Angeles, Calif. Keystone has flown millions of survey miles throughout the United States on projects with varied specifications and is an expert in the execution of projects in all types of terrain and weather conditions as well as in restricted airspace. On the federal level, Keystone has worked for the USDA (NRI, WRP, and NAIP, Forests), USGS, BLM, FEMA, Corp of Engineers, and NOAA. For more information, visit kasurveys.com.
About PASCO
PASCO CORPORATION (TSE:9232) is Japan's largest geospatial service provider, with its roots as an aerial surveyor founded in 1953. PASCO's wide sensing capability covers various levels from space (satellite), air (fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter), sea, mobile mapping, and drone to capture phenomena in society, which it then processes and analyzes to solve issues such as land management and protection, disaster risk mitigation, environmental management, and infrastructure management, with the power of geospatial information.
PASCO is a SECOM Group company and is listed in the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange. The consolidated revenue in FY2018 is 51,900,000,000 Japanese Yen, and the total headcount is 2,693.
About Geomni
Geomni, a Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) business, is centered around an address- and location-based database of property-related analytics. Using the latest remote sensing and machine learning technologies, Geomni gathers, stores, processes, and delivers geographic and spatially referenced information relating to residential and commercial structures. Property professionals can use the data to help determine scope of damage, discover hazards, assess risk, perform valuations, and much more. Geomni's property analytics database supports a number of critical tools that protect people, property, and financial assets. Learn more at www.geomni.com.
About Verisk
Verisk (Nasdaq:VRSK) is a leading data analytics provider serving customers in insurance, energy and specialized markets, and financial services. Using advanced technologies to collect and analyze billions of records, Verisk draws on unique data assets and deep domain expertise to provide first-to-market innovations that are integrated into customer workflows. Verisk offers predictive analytics and decision support solutions to customers in rating, underwriting, claims, catastrophe and weather risk, global risk analytics, natural resources intelligence, economic forecasting, and many other fields. Around the world, Verisk helps customers protect people, property, and financial assets.
Headquartered in Jersey City, N.J., Verisk operates in 30 countries and is a member of Standard & Poor's S&P 500(R) Index. In 2018, Forbes magazine named Verisk to its World's Best Employers list. For more information, please visit www.verisk.com.
Contact:
Investor Relations
Stacey Brodbar
Head of Investor Relations
Verisk
201-469-4327
stacey.brodbar@verisk.com
Media
Frank Lentini
Edelman (for Verisk)
212-704-4425
frank.lentini@edelman.com
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Source: Verisk Analytics Inc. via Globenewswire
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