California Amplifier Buys Rights to Gardiner Products

California Amplifier in Camarillo has acquired the technology and product rights to all of Gardiner Communications Corp.’s products.

Gardiner designs and manufactures satellite television downconverters. Besides the technology and product rights, California Amplifier purchased manufacturing and development-related equipment and inventory from Gardiner.

The purchase price, including related costs, is approximately $9.1 million, of which $3.5 million relates to the product and technology rights.

Gardiner, a privately held company in Garland, Texas, has a customer list that includes Echostar Communications, Thomson Consumer Electronics and Hughes Network Systems. It had sales of approximately $21 million and operating income of $800,000 last year.

Under the arrangement, the companies have agreed that Gardiner will continue to manufacture its products in Texas under a subcontract arrangement. California Amplifier will hire certain Gardiner employees to coordinate the manufacturing effort and develop future products for the United States and Europe.

“This acquisition provides California Amplifier an immediate and significant entry into the mainstream United States and European Direct Broadcast Satellite markets, which are integral to our strategic plan for our satellite business unit,” said Fred Sturm, California Amplifier chief executive officer.