GeneralGPS

what is the name of the companies that manufacture GPS systems?

I'm looking to invest in these companies b/c now everything has a gps tracking system in it. I know onstar and garmin are providers of the service but I want to know who is responsible for the little machines thanks

Public Comments

1. forget the machines, get a sprint phone and get the service unlimited for 20 bucks a month, it would save you a lot of money!! and the phones that are GPS capable are only like 50 bucks!! compared to 500 or more!!
2. Garmin is a manufacturer of consumer GPS receivers. Magellan is a Thales brand. Thales makes consumer GPS receivers AND they're an aviation company. GPS use is very popular in civil aviation, and there is talk of the next generation Air Traffic Control System being GPS based. Lowrance Electronics is another company, as is LG, TomTom, and Hummunbird. Thales is publicly traded - I dont' know about the other ones.
3. I actually have a geospatial (GPS & mapping) fantasy stock portfolio. It has gone up 35.10% since December of 2005. There are 29 stocks included in my portfolio that are related to GPS and mapping. They include: Autodesk, Boeing, Broadcom, Cobra, Fujitsu, Garmin, General Electric, General Dynamics, Google, HP/Compaq, ITT, John Deere, Kodak, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft, NAVTEQ, Northrup Grumman, NovAtel, Oce, Oracle, GeoEye, Pitney Bowes, Rockwell Collins, SiRF, Stewart Information Services, Telvent, TimeWarner, Trimble, and Yahoo. The companies that are deeply involved in GPS are Garmin, NAVTEQ (provides map data to GPS manufacturers), SiRF (manufactures GPS receiver chipsets), Broadcom (makes GPS receiver chipsets), John Deere (Navcom brand of GPS for agriculture), and Trimble (survey-grade GPS). I must warn you, this is a turbulent product market. SiRF was riding high when it was kicking everyone else's butt. But now there are price and competitive pressures and its stock has lost half its value since March. Garmin has been going up like crazy, with my holdings increasing from about $58 to $208 since Dec 2005. But it did have a 7% one-week drop earlier this month. So with just these two stocks, you have seen how you could make a ton of money or lose your shirt. One of the previous answers said Magellan is part of Thales. That is no longer true. They were purchased by a private equity group several months ago and are now Magellan Navigation. Likewise, Lowrance used to be publicly traded but was bought out by a Scandinavian firm. Brunswick (NYSE:BC) used to own Navman, but that also got sold off to a private equity firm.