Topcon Positioning Systems, Inc., (TPS) signed a binding agreement to acquire one of the company's top survey products distributors, Hayes Instrument Company of Shelbyville, Tenn. Hayes, which has been in business for almost 25 years, has represented Topcon surveying products in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Arkansas. It is also one of Topcon's 13 regional repair centers in the United States. TPS also announced it would expand Hayes' territory to include Georgia and South Carolina. The company plans to open a new retail store in Atlanta by the end of June. Additional store openings are under consideration and any new stores will represent the complete line of Topcon optical surveying and GPS products.

Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging acquired the technology assets of Acquis, Inc., a developer of web-based data editing software for Oracle Spatial. Leica Geosystems will use this technology to provide enterprise functionality on the Oracle Spatial database. Leica Geosystems Geospatial Imaging also acquired all the assets of Earth Resource Mapping Ltd (ER Mapper), a geospatial software company headquartered in Australia. ER Mapper provides geospatial imagery processing solutions that prepare, manage, compress, and deploy imagery, thus complementing Leica Geosystems' existing product portfolio. ER Mapper's new server application, Image Web Server (IWS), specifically made for the enterprise environment is designed to manage and distribute large image datasets.