Boeing acquires Jeppesen Sanderson for $1.5 billion

Boeing added another jewel to its growing aviation services crown with the announcement it will acquire flight information service provider Jeppesen Sanderson (Denver, CO) from Tribune Company for $1.5 billion in cash.

Jeppesen, well-respected and known worldwide, produces a wide range of print and electronic flight information services, including navigation data, computerized flight planning, aviation software products, aviation weather services, maintenance information, and pilot training systems and supplies. Jeppesen says its customers include a majority of airlines around the world and all U.S. airlines. The company also has a huge presence in the general and corporate aviation markets.

In an interesting historical twist, the founder of the company, Captain Elrey B. "Jepp" Jeppesen worked for Boeing in the early 1930s. He flew for Boeing Air Transport as an airmail pilot on the Salt Lake City-Cheyenne/Salt Lake City-Oakland routes for $50 a week and 14 cents a mile.

During aviation's early years, aeronautical charts didn't exist and aeronautical information was available only through hard-won experience and word of mouth. As company lore records it, this is when the first Jepp "database" was created - a loose-leaf notebook in which Capt. Jeppesen recorded field lengths, slopes, information on lights and obstacles, drawings that profiled terrain and airport layouts, and even phone numbers of local farmers who could provide weather reports. On his days off, he was even said to have conducted his own field surveys - climbing hills, smokestacks, and water towers recording accurate elevations using an altimeter.

Jeppesen now has 1,400 employees in the United States, Germany, Australia, China, and the United Kingdom and last year generated $235 million in sales with operating margins of more than 25%. Boeing says it will operate the company as a wholly owned subsidiary and keep the current management team in place.

"We've made it clear that we are transforming Boeing into a global aerospace solutions provider, and growing our aviation services business is a major part of that transformation," said Boeing chairman and CEO Phil Condit. "Jeppesen is the world's No. 1 source for flight information services, so it's a perfect fit for our aviation services portfolio. If you're a pilot almost anywhere in the world, you know Jeppesen."

Edited by David Robb
Managing Editor, AerospaceOnline.com