FTC has killed plans for EagleView acquisition
Plans by a New Jersey company to take over the parent firm of Pictometry International Corp, announced a year ago, are off.
Verisk Analytics Inc. opted last month to end its plans to buy EagleView Technology Corp. after the Federal Trade Commission said would challenge it. The FTC in December said Verisk’s $650 million takeover would give it a virtual monopoly in the United States for products used to measure rooftops by air for the insurance industry as it assesses property claims. According to the federal regulatory, EagleView is Verisk’s biggest and most significant competitor.
“Despite the best efforts of both EagleView and Verisk, the FTC has maintained its position that the merger would have a negative effect on the competitive landscape — a position EagleView fundamentally disagrees with and one that the company believes is unsubstantiated based on the facts as supported by the nearly 400,000 documents EagleView produced in response to FTC requests,” EagleView CEO Chris Barrow said in a statement.
Aerial roof measurement company EagleView merged with Henrietta-based aerial imagery company Pictometry in early 2013.
It was one year later that Versik and EagleView announced plans for the acquisition, which was to have closed by July. It employs close to 200 locally.
With the merger having fallen through, the two companies instead might become even greater head-to-head competitors.
In a statement, Verisk CEO Scott Stephenson said “We continue to view aerial imagery as important to our customers. As a result, Verisk will continue to pursue our development of imagery analytics, which will allow our customers to benefit from our deep industry expertise and technology advances.”
MDANEMAN@DemocratandChronicle.com