Menu
What's new
By:
Filters

Boeing sells Jeppesen, Foreflight etc. for $10.55 billion

Aeromot

Aeromot

Flies over Oceans
Joined
Sep 30, 2019
Messages
10,230
Location
Santa Paula Airport (KSZP), the west end
The buyer was Investment firm Thoma Bravo.

mynorthwest.com

Boeing offloads digital aviation assets in $10.6B deal

Boeing announced it is selling portions of its Digital Aviation Solutions business for $10.6 billion to Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm.
mynorthwest.com mynorthwest.com

www.ainonline.com

Boeing Selling Digital Aviation Solutions Business to Thoma Bravo | AIN

Deal includes Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData, and OzRunways
www.ainonline.com www.ainonline.com

investors.boeing.com

Boeing to Sell Portions of Digital Aviation Solutions to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 Billion

- Agreement includes principles for data sharing and future collaborations to ensure continuity of operations under Thoma Bravo's ownership - Sale strengthens Boeing's capital structure and allows company to focus on core business, including key continued technical operations Boeing [NYSE: BA]...
investors.boeing.com investors.boeing.com

Boeing to Sell Portions of Digital Aviation Solutions to Thoma Bravo for $10.55 Billion

Thoma Bravo to acquire portions of Boeing's Digital Aviation Solutions business, including Jeppesen, ForeFlight, AerData & OzRunways for $10.55 billion.
www.thomabravo.com www.thomabravo.com

www.avweb.com

Boeing Offloads GA-Support Entities in $10.5 Billion Deal

Jeppesen and ForeFlight are among the business units included
www.avweb.com www.avweb.com

It's probably a good time to renew your subscription, since you can be sure that prices will not go down.
 
Last edited:
Aeromot said:
It's probably a good time to renew your subscription, since you can be sure that prices will not go down.
Click to expand...
I'm sure you're right, and that is probably a good short term suggestion. Longer term, I worry about ForeFlight itself.
 
I was concerned when Boeing bought it but they stayed surprising true to it. I’m hoping the new owner will spend some time upgrading the logbook function. Reports are useless since you can’t select or modify what you get and I have always advocated for better instructor tools. Boeing just never realized making great tools for instructors = instructors utilizing your product = valuable free advertising as students will naturally use what they see their instructor using.
I also hope they take a page from Garmin Pilots book and make the logbook free. Or at the very least allow continued access to the data even if you pause or cancel your subscription.
 
My sense is that their prices for private pilots are near the top of what many private pilots are willing to pay. There are other options.

If they raise the price of the lower subscriptions by much, I wouldn't be surprised to see more private pilots look for other options.
 
Katzenjammer said:
If Foreflight prices go up, I change to something else.
Click to expand...
They'd have to go up significantly for me to switch. Or the quality and support would have to go down. When I think of all the paper charts I have bought over the years, FF is still a bargain.
 
Yes, and I'm a happy Foreflight customer.

But there are other products that can do the job just as well for a general aviation pilot who might fly 50 to 100 hours a year -- for significantly lower prices.
 
Brian said:
My sense is that their prices for private pilots are near the top of what many private pilots are willing to pay. There are other options.

If they raise the price of the lower subscriptions by much, I wouldn't be surprised to see more private pilots look for other options.
Click to expand...
I agree with you Brian. I currently get my subscription paid for me otherwise I would have stayed with Garmin Pilot, which I liked better. But I do find a lot of useful things on foreflight. They are to expensive though for what you get.
 
That's too bad...prices go up, support/innovation/stability takes a hit. PE firms kinda suck like that. I worked at Borden Foods (Elsie the Cow anyone?) after KKR bought the company and then sold it to pieces. I think Barilla got the best part of the deal.
 
I also worked at a company that was bought by KKR, after it had already been bought and sold twice in just a few years. Both of the previous buyers had taken pretty deep cuts to reduce costs, and KKR tried to do more. We got used to each new buyer telling us that they bought the company to grow it and make it better, often at the same time that they were having talks with yet another firm to sell it. I got three Sterling performance reviews in a row and three bonuses for exceeding my quotas and then got dumped because I made too much money. Shortly after that, it was sold again. By then it was just a husk.

From that experience, my expectation is that Foreflight's new owners will try to make some cost cuts and possibly raise prices, but not invest too much in improving the product, which does seem to be fairly mature. If Garmin or other competitors add some breakthrough feature, I would expect Foreflight to respond, but I wouldn't be surprised if it loses its market leadership in the process.
 
Last edited:
This article discusses some of the issues that have or could arise following the purchase: the accompanying poll is not very optimistic

airfactsjournal.com

Cleared Into the Thoma Bravo—ForeFlight Has New Owners : Air Facts Journal

ForeFlight is still considered the EFB standard with a very loyal user base—it’s their market share to lose. However, I also don’t think their future is entirely CAVOK either: In the 25-plus years I’ve been in the software business, I have never met a private equity deal I liked. Mainly because...
airfactsjournal.com airfactsjournal.com
 
Last edited:
I voted 'unsure'. It's way too early to have any good sense of what they'll do.
 
If you'd like to know who/what is thomabravo:

Thoma Bravo | Leading Private Equity Firm in Software & Technology

Thoma Bravo is a leading private equity firm.
www.thomabravo.com www.thomabravo.com
Last line from their "About" blurb:
...We support our companies by investing in growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions designed to drive long-term value.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing they still do not own all the companies they have bought/invested in. I wonder what final plans ThomaBravo has for Jeppesen/Foreflight.
 
Last edited:
These articles make it sound as though ForeFlight and Jeppesen are going to be treated as a single entity.

avbrief.com

Jeppesen ForeFlight To Use AI To Fuel Growth - AvBrief.com

Amalgamated company launched by new own Thoma Bravo after $10.55 billion purchase from Boeing.
avbrief.com avbrief.com

avweb.com

Jeppesen ForeFlight Unified Under Private Equity Ownership

New company, Jeppesen ForeFlight, formed following Boeing's $10.55 billion sale of digital aviation assets.
avweb.com avweb.com

Since everything in Aviation must have an acronym, perhaps we will have to start referring to it as JFF or maybe JEFF.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom