Skip to main content

3M to focus on connected roadways of the future

3M is to sell its electronic monitoring business to enable its Transportation Safety Division to focus on connected roadways of the future.
June 5, 2017 Read time: 1 min
3M is to sell its electronic monitoring business to enable its Transportation Safety Division to focus on connected roadways of the future.


According to John Riccardi, vice president and general manager, Transportation Safety Division, the divestiture is one of several actions the company has taken to improve its portfolio. “We are focusing on the rapidly changing trends in transportation safety and mobility, which include the connected roadways of the future,” he said.

The company has entered into an agreement to sell the business to an affiliate of Apax Partners, a leading global private equity advisory firm, for US$200 million; the transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017.

For almost 80 years, 3M has developed solutions to improve road safety and mobility. The Transportation Safety Division, formerly known as the Traffic Safety and Security Division, supplies materials and solutions including retroreflective sign sheeting, pavement marking, temporary traffic control, vehicle registration and visibility.

Related Content

  • East Africa uses cargo tracking to foils criminals and collect tax
    June 10, 2015
    Shem Oirere looks at the beneficial effect of cargo tracking. The mandatory installation of electronic cargo tracking and security (ECTS) systems in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has helped enhance revenue collection, enforce cargo handling requirements, improved the business environment of the respective countries’ trade routes and helped cargo hauliers cut costs. This is being spearheaded by the state-owned tax collection agencies and the improved custom duty collection has not only enabled a reduction of im
  • How can US transportation be ‘re-envisioned’?
    October 17, 2019
    In her address to this year’s ITS America Annual Meeting, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, chair of the House Subcommittee on Highways and Transit, called for a ‘re-envisioning’ of transportation. Her speech is below – and ITS International asks a number of US experts what they would like to see ‘re-envisioned’…

    I would like to welcome  ITS America to the nation’s capital.

  • Cisco, NXP invest in Cohda Wireless to enable the connected car
    January 7, 2013
    In a partnership that they say will advance intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and car-to-X communications, US-headquartered IT provider Cisco and Dutch semiconductor supplier NXP Semiconductors are to invest in wireless communications specialist Cohda Wireless. The three companies will apply their collective expertise and technologies to help automotive OEMs, suppliers, enterprises and consumers to connect vehicles with ITS infrastructure. This will be spearheaded by producing the first automotive-q
  • EU Transport Commissioner encourages cross-border cooperation
    May 25, 2016
    Opening the 2016 General Assembly of the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) on Smart Cities and Communities (EIP SCC) which aims to improve urban life through more sustainable integrated solutions in transport, energy and ICT sectors, European Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc challenged cities and companies to cooperate across borders, to accelerate and scale investment. She said: "Cleaner air, safer transport networks, reducing congestion, optimising use of existing infrastructure – these are just