Rumours of SensorLogic’s demise three or four weeks ago made us wonder whether we should modify our list of M2M platform providers – click here to access this. However, we understood at the time that Gemalto/Cinterion was interested in picking up the pieces so we waited to see what would happen.

Today (December 20) brought confirmation that the deal has been done and – as it happens – I was at Cinterion offices today in Munich, so gained confirmation of some of the details.

Assuming they can hang on to the knowledge in the heads of the SensorLogic technical staff in Texas, this has the makings of a great deal for Gemalto/Cinterion that should put them in a good spot. Gemalto did not pick up the company and its debts – just the assets and the brand. That means the name SensorLogic will continue as the Gemalto brand for that level of M2M platform – at least for the time being. It also means that Gemalto’s own M2M platform is highly complementary and the two together should create some interesting value-add opportunities. By the same token, it also starts to make more sense of Gemalto’s acquisition of Cinterion: the market rationale for that has been a long time coming but some of the pieces should now start falling into place.

In our view, SensorLogic’s main weaknesses have always been its route to market and its finances. Fix those and you fix a lot. Gemalto’s route to market is the mobile operators – something SensorLogic was trying to do but was too resource-constrained to follow through on at the level required. Gemalto is also a $1bn plus company so finance is no longer an issue. It is also right in the middle of SIM-level M2M developments (see Beecham Research’s recent newsletter at this  link) that should also prove relevant to the SensorLogic game plan.

We think this move is significant. There are other, equally important players in this market but it certainly means that the name “SensorLogic” will remain in our short list of the Top 16 movers and shakers in M2M Service Enablement.