AutoID & Data Capture Blog

On August 3rd, Cognex (CGNX) published its second quarter results ending July 5, 2015 and recorded a historic winning second quarter for the corporation, ranking the second highest for any quarter in its history. The revenue from continued operations amounted to $143.8 million in the past three months, a 56% growth from the year ago quarter and a 42% sequential increase from Q1 2015. Income from continuing operations from last year and the previous quarter rose 92% and 123% respectively. This quarter’s revenue and income calculations excluded sales from the discontinued Surface Inspection System Division (SISD) operations, which generated $11.2 million in revenue in Q2 of 2015. With the strategic sale of its surface inspection business in early July, Cognex plans to sharpen its focus on automating discrete manufacturing applications with the high-margin yielding machine vision and ID product lines. Read more

Big news for Oregon-based inventor of the ‘invisible’ barcode as Digimarc made headlines last week when Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon posted a photo on Instagram, which shows testing of Digimarc’s invisible barcode on a packet of chips.

Since 2014, Digimarc has made great strides in its bid to make its patented Digimarc Barcode the next big thing in the retail space. Taking the traditional UPC barcode, Digimarc makes it invisible to the naked eye using digital watermarking technology and places the barcode all over the printed packaging of the product. Read more

On April 22nd, The Wall Street Journal announced the news that ATM-maker NCR is eyeing strategic alternatives as they face lagging stock prices and shareholder pressure. A potential spinoff, sale of assets, or a full acquisition/buyout - all seem like very viable possibilities. On June 2nd 2015, news broke of NCR asking for first-round bids from prospective buyers and on June 16th, two large private equity firms, Blackstone Group LP and Carlyle Group LP, have paired up in a $10 Billion leveraged buyout (LBO) offer for NCR, including debt. Read more

Cognex Corporation (CGNX), a leading vendor in the machine vision and industrial scanning markets, announced the acquisition of its Surface Inspection Systems Division (SISD) on June 8, 2015, as part of a $160 million, all-cash deal with AMETEK Inc., a multi-billion dollar manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices. While the transaction continues to be subject to closing conditions and regulatory approvals, AMETEK expressed its enthusiasm to have the new SISD department as the latest addition to its Electronic Instrument Group (EIG) product portfolio, a leader in the design and manufacturing of advanced instruments for the process, aerospace, power and industrial markets, which amassed a total of $2.4 billion in sales in 2014. Read more

Zebra Technologies (ZBRA) reported its Q1 2015 earnings on May 13th, beating the market consensus on EPS by 27 cents and that on revenues by $11.37 million. Net sales of $892.3 million for the quarter included the $561 million contributed by the Enterprise business unit acquired from Motorola Solutions, a 6% increase on a constant currency basis. Zebra’s legacy business accounted for $331.6 million, up 15% from Q1 2014, a remarkable increase for what is generally viewed as a stable and relatively saturated market.  Read more

Cognex announced its Q1 2015 earnings after market close on Monday, May 4th. The company reported quarterly revenues of $113 million, 84% (approximately $95 million) of which was attributed to its factory automation segment. Cognex reported that this year-over-year revenue increase occurred despite the global currency exchange rate fluctuations, which constituted a negative impact of approximately $7 million. RD&E and SG&A expenses reportedly grew faster than revenues this past quarter due primarily to growth investments including new product development and sales initiatives. Legal fees related to Cognex’s recently-resolved patent dispute with Microscan also contributed to this rise in expenses. Read more

In the past year, VDC has undertaken some rather interesting projects, helping our clients identify new target markets (regional and vertical) and exciting new opportunities to help promote business growth both now and in the future. Our April 2015 VDC Viewhighlights some of the most interesting and pressing opportunities for AutoID technology vendors, distributors and end users. Read more

Word about Digimarc’s digital watermark for consumer products or the “invisible barcode” as they’re calling it, is starting to get around. A technology company based in Oregon, Digimarc is renowned for its digital watermarking and identification solutions used in global currency, government IDs, television, and publishing. The company is now focused on expanding its presence into the retail front-of-store with its barcode alternative. Without getting too technical, Digimarc takes a traditional UPC barcode, makes it invisible to the naked eye, and puts it all over the packaging of a product. The camera-based imager being used to scan the items at the front-end of a retail store quickly picks up this imperceptible digital information and allows the check-out process to be completed in record breaking times.  Read more

Yesterday, Zebra Technologies announced its 2014 Q4 and full year earnings. It was notably the first quarter since the acquisition in which Motorola Solutions’ Enterprise business unit was integrated with the company. VDC’s qualitative analysis of the most compelling comments made by the Zebra leadership team in the earnings call can be found in yesterday’s blog. This post will discuss some of the key AIDC-centric highlights from the call. Read more

On Thursday, March 26th, VDC’s Richa Gupta will co-present a webinar with Loftware’s Josh Roffman, Vice President Marketing and Product Management, where they will discuss why labeling is a strategic imperative in today’s global supply chains. This presentation is a follow-up to the comprehensive white paper co-authored by the two firms in December, titled “Enterprise Labeling – A Supply Chain Strategic Imperative”.  Read more

On February 3, data capture industry veteran Datalogic announced that it has entered into a multi-year agreement with retail solutions behemoth NCR Corporation for the supply of its Jade X7™ Automated Scanner. I have seen these at the NRF show – designed to facilitate automated scanning and checkout at high-volume retail locations. The products are placed on a moving conveyor belt in any orientation, and are then scanned by multiple array imagers as they move through a “tunnel,” easing the checkout process for both the attendant/cashier as well as the customer. Read more

I am back from spending an interesting couple of days at the NRF Expo in New York City. This annual event is, of course, all about retail. It is all about vendors showcasing technologies and solution capabilities that ease retailers’ everyday operations, helping them get their products to the right customer at the right time and the right price. Omnichannel has been an industry buzzword for several years at this point and one that several vendors showcasing their products at this forum have latched on to. Retailing today has morphed into something that places just as much importance to the distribution center and logistics partner as it does to the retail store.  Read more