Welcome to this week's edition of the POB eNews...

Another Chapter in the Acquisition Age

Once again, surveyors are finding themselves preparing for the effects of a major acquisition in our industry—and a most notable one. After almost 11 months of negotiations, Japanese companies Topcon Corporation and Sokkia Co. Ltd. combined effective Feb. 5, making Sokkia a wholly owned subsidiary of Topcon Corporation.  

The full extent of the business integration of the two companies is planned for April 1, 2011. But we can expect some things in the meantime. Statements reflect that both companies plan to "standardize the platforms for total stations by the end of fiscal year 2010." Sokkia, with its strength in this product area, will most certainly be behind much of this decision making. Topcon will oversee and implement the R&D, manufacture and sales of GPS equipment, machine control systems and even 3D laser scanners (Topcon has a scanner under development for U.S. surveyors and civil engineers).  

Sokkia’s employee base will be merged (and, as with all acquisitions, some purged) into Topcon’s, combining the talents of the two companies for the benefit of successful product enhancement and development. This is often a benefit of an acquisition: one company, perhaps lacking in certain areas, can build from the strengths of the other. The brands of the two companies, however, are said to remain the same—at least for some time. This is welcome news to many, who are loyal to one or both of the companies’ product lines.  

The history of the two companies combined is long and strong, and we expect both Topcon and Sokkia to build on their legacies to accelerate customer satisfaction. This is, of course, the catalyst for business success. The strategic Topcon/Sokkia business move, like all others, can be good for the profession, but only if the entities follow through on their proposed business intent and remain focused on the customer. 

-Lieca Hohner

P.S. Take a moment to vote in our Quick Poll at www.pobonline.com. This month, we want to know how many years of education you think should be required to sit for the exam?

News From DeLorme
- A Blog by Michael L. Binge, LS, GISP

On February 11, DeLorme announced a significant enhancement to its professional XMap software package(s) that will be very useful to many surveyors. The company is offering free downloads of Public Land Survey System (PLSS) data for all 30 PLSS states.  

The free data layers are described as having been developed from a "variety of sources including the Bureau of Land Management, The U.S. Geological Survey and various State GIS agencies." The format is "OpenSpace," which is a proprietary DeLorme file type. It appears as a labeled grid showing the "section boundaries." The PLSS layers are georeferenced to the other DeLorme basemap layers and can be easily dragged and dropped into map view using the XMap products and clipped and exported into hand-held GPS devices such as the Earthmate PN 20.  

There are no "points" indicated in these data sets, and there doesn’t appear to be any metadata or other information about any corners associated with them. But they can be user enhanced. To edit the data or add information to the data sets you need the GIS Editor or Enterprise versions of the XMap three-tiered product suite.    

The data can be downloaded free at www.xmap.com . The downloads are arranged conveniently by state. And the files are fairly large.

Check out Mike's January 2008 In Review: The Earthmate GPS PN-20 by DeLorme in POB's archives.

Problem: Advanced Mathematics: Curve Superelevation

When a highway is superelevated around a curve, which statement best describes the usual treatment of the centerline, inner edge, and the outer edge of that curve?

Joke of the Week: President’s Day Jokes

Cool Link of the Week: The HP Calculator Club

Click to POB's Fun & Games page to access the rest of this week's problem, the cool link and the jokes.