Garmin/Raymarine: decision day?

Glad FLIR got Raymarine and not Garmin, glad also Raymarine have a future. It's better for competition and future innovation. Will keep Garmin on their toes.

I had already started to replace the remaining Raymarine kit on our boat with an all garmin setup instead of the hybrid Raymarine/Garmin setup we've used for the past few years. Have to say with my "techie" hat on Garmin is just so much nicer to use. It's the iPhone of nav networks. :)
 
Have to agree with that, I have to get the manual out everytime I use my RL70 (Ok so they are pretty old now) and its not like I'm a technophobe, I'm a software engineer.
 
WALLY said:
This is a bit strange - Garmin offered A LOT more per share than FLIR - if i was a Raymarine shareholder i'd be a bit peeved.

I think this story has further to go yet.
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I am (was?) a Raymarine share holder, not a huge number but somewhere around 150,000. There is no doubt the board did not want Garmin to buy the business and played a very quiet game. the whole deal with banks forcing the administration was co-ordinated by the board to get the outcome they wanted.

So the difference in price has cost me personally about £16000 assuming that the 35p Garmin bid nett was worth around 30p as it was before costs.

However, I still made a reasonable profit - but there are those who bought in at 18-30p for whome the Garmin bid would have been the only way to recover the losses. In a way its good to see the firm standing on its own still rather than being a Garmin almalgimation. What happens about the way the sale was conducted I cant guess as I dont know enough. Personally, I will take the 19.5p and move on, though there are some big players who bought in at around 17p who might be less lienient but I hope not. Draggig it out could just cost shareholders that which for now, they already have.
 
WALLY said:
This is a bit strange - Garmin offered A LOT more per share than FLIR - if i was a Raymarine shareholder i'd be a bit peeved.
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I doubt it's that simple, though i'm not close to the story. Did Garmin make a formal offer to shareholders prior to the administration? If so the shareholders could surely have accepted it, regardless of the advice of Raymarine's management. Also need to be careful about which legal entity they offered to buy, and how much of the debt it had. Once in adminstration, the adminstrators have a legal duty to get the best deal for creditors and shareholders, so they can't just ignore a competitive offer if it achieves a better return. They do, of course, have licence to consider things other than the amount of the offer, so they can look at the buyers availability of funds, speed of transaction, likelihood of completion etc., but they must always do so with a view to securing the best overall deal.

edit: just read the LSE announcement. It doesn't state what price FLIR paid for the shares in Raymarine Holdings, but says that after paying off debts and costs, shareholders in Raymarine PLC should get back about 17.5p per share. Was the Garmin offer (if there was one) calculated on the same basis?
 
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WhiteMischief said:
Have to agree with that, I have to get the manual out everytime I use my RL70 (Ok so they are pretty old now) and its not like I'm a technophobe, I'm a software engineer.
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Huhh?
The Raymarine plotters the most intuitave kit I've used.
The way the sof keys work, anyone can operate it.
This applies to the old Pathfinders as well as the latest offerings.
I'm afraid I dont agree with you.

Lets hope they stay in business - I'd buy Raymarine again.
In fact, my Raymarine satellite domes out perform the industry's more common KVH kit - working in areas where KVH doesn't.
 
Hurricane said:
Huhh?
The Raymarine plotters the most intuitave kit I've used.
The way the sof keys work, anyone can operate it.
This applies to the old Pathfinders as well as the latest offerings.
I'm afraid I dont agree with you.

Lets hope they stay in business - I'd buy Raymarine again.
In fact, my Raymarine satellite domes out perform the industry's more common KVH kit - working in areas where KVH doesn't.
Click to expand...

Don't get me wrong the Raymarine kit was easy to use and great kit, it's just Garmin is even more intuitive to use. Raymarine is like Microsoft, Garmin is like iPhone :) :)
 
oceanfroggie said:
Don't get me wrong the Raymarine kit was easy to use and great kit, it's just Garmin is even more intuitive to use. Raymarine is like Microsoft, Garmin is like iPhone :) :)
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My new Raymarine widescreen plotter is a doddle to use. Within 20-30 minutes of fiddling around i had everything set pretty much how i wanted it. I've not had to get the manual out yet.
 
MapisM said:
Now, that's a statement Furuno might consider for an advertising campaign!
I mean, after all you want your nav gear to work, in the first place... :D
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That reminds me of the famous retort given by a car industry exec at a Bill Gates seminar. Gates hypothesised that if the car industry had innovated as well as Microsoft then "we would all be driving $25 cars that got 1000 MPG"

The GM exec replied something along the lines of, "yes, and the car would crash three times a day with no warning, if they changed the road signs you'd have to buy a new car, and to turn off the engine, you'd press the "Start" button" :-)
 
Hurricane said:
Huhh?
The Raymarine plotters the most intuitave kit I've used.
The way the sof keys work, anyone can operate it.
This applies to the old Pathfinders as well as the latest offerings.
I'm afraid I dont agree with you.

Lets hope they stay in business - I'd buy Raymarine again.
In fact, my Raymarine satellite domes out perform the industry's more common KVH kit - working in areas where KVH doesn't.
Click to expand...

Probably just cos mine is old - but to select a stored route I have to navigate through the 'Route', 'More', 'Route List', arrow keys to select the route *Do not push enter!* push 'Show Route' then navigate all the way back out, then 'Goto', then 'Follow Route'.

Working in IT I naturally go to select something and then push enter which screws it all up.

I have no doubt that newer versions are better. I recall DOS being harder to use than Windows.
 
Nick_H said:
That reminds me of the famous retort given by a car industry exec at a Bill Gates seminar.
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Yep, that's indeed a famous one, but reportedly not true. Further details here, for instance.
Btw, it's not by chance that I quoted the sentence including the iPhone comparison.
Imho, also that piece of technology is, ermmm... overrated, to say the least. :)
 
Over rated possibly, definitely over priced but very intuitive and it does just work. I have had it with HTC windows mobiles, the last one got smashed in a phone rage incident. Its no good adding gimmicks that work intermittently. I hate Macs with a passion but I had eat my words when I tried the iPhone. This site for instance works fine on the iPhone but not on my last windows mobile.
 
MapisM said:
Btw, it's not by chance that I quoted the sentence including the iPhone comparison.
Imho, also that piece of technology is, ermmm... overrated, to say the least. :)
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Going way off topic here, and sod all even to do with boats, but I have to disagree. The iphone is the first thing i've bought in ages that really does live up to the hype. It's the most intuitive thing i've ever owned, and (so far) it just works. For me it's everything that technology should be, it makes your life easier, not more complicated.

Unfortunately, I hardly need to mention that I have no links to the company
 
Nick_H said:
Going way off topic here, and sod all even to do with boats, but I have to disagree.
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Well, each to their own of course.
If for instance a ridiculous battery duration is fine for you, no problem.
Same goes for the way less than average construction of the thing.
I could go on, but as you said that's way o/t and I perfectly know that most iPhone users (swmbo included) love it, anyway.
They ought to, after what they spent to get it... :D

Otoh, I've yet to find anyone who could name me something that can't be done also with much simpler, cheaper and more durable devices like the Nokia 5800, just to name one.
 
WhiteMischief said:
Probably just cos mine is old - but to select a stored route I have to navigate through the 'Route', 'More', 'Route List', arrow keys to select the route *Do not push enter!* push 'Show Route' then navigate all the way back out, then 'Goto', then 'Follow Route'.

Working in IT I naturally go to select something and then push enter which screws it all up.

I have no doubt that newer versions are better. I recall DOS being harder to use than Windows.
Click to expand...

On the G Series, its just
Go To - Follow Route
Select the Route
And the next prompt engages the autopilot

It really cant be any easier.
 
Sounds a bit more logical. Mine may have done that at some point but some kind former owner has removed the main autopilot unit. Left all the peripheral guff though. Very helpful. :mad:
 
MapisM said:
Otoh, I've yet to find anyone who could name me something that can't be done also with much simpler, cheaper and more durable devices like the Nokia 5800, just to name one.
Click to expand...

The Symbian OS that Nokia uses has got to be the most outdated piece of **** - it's as un userfriendly as the iPhone is intuitive.

Plus, I really cant understand how the Nokia is better built than a iPhone, other than for the unforgivable fact, that Apple made the battery non user serviceable.

Anyway, back to boats - :D
 
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