That fateful day has finally arrived — the Swiss navigational giant Garmin has closed its purchase of DeLorme, the 40-year-old Maine mapping company icon.
On Thursday, Garmin officially announced that it had closed the deal for an undisclosed price. News broke Feb. 11 that Garmin had entered an agreement to purchase DeLorme, with a particular interest in the company’s satellite mapping and communications products.
The completion of the sale comes just one week after DeLorme closed its map store with a “small number of layoffs,” a company spokeswoman told the Bangor Daily News.
DeLorme’s Yarmouth headquarters will now begin its transformation into a research and development facility for Garmin’s satellite mapping products.
But don’t worry, the world’s largest revolving and rotating globe, Eartha, which is housed inside the facility will still be open for public tours.
The fate of DeLorme’s printed maps, including its iconic blue Maine Atlas and Gazetteer, isn’t as clear. A company spokeswoman told the BDN that atlas sales had fallen off in the early 2000s, but recently had leveled off.
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