Garmin Ltd. on January 5 announced its acquisition of substantially all the assets of GEOS Worldwide Limited and its subsidiaries. A privately held provider of emergency monitoring and incident response services, GEOS Worldwide operates the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC), which is the nerve centre for SOS rescue efforts triggered by Garmin’s inReach personal satellite communicators.

The IERCC’s response coordinators have fielded more than 83,000 emergency incidents around the globe since 2007, including more than 5,000 SOS incidents generated by Garmin customers.

“With this acquisition, Garmin is now able to provide even more peace of mind to our inReach users,” said Brad Trenkle, vice president of Garmin’s outdoor segment.

GEOS Worldwide, with its primary operations in Montgomery, Texas, states its services have helped to save more than 12,000 lives in the 198 countries. Financial terms of the acquisition will not be released.

“GEOS has enjoyed a strong collaboration with Garmin over the years, and we look forward to continuing to work together to continue to provide best-in-class emergency response and safety services for customers around the globe,” said Peter Chlubek, GEOS executive chairman.

Garmin introduced its inReach Mini in mid-2018. (Photo: Garmin International)