Thales Navigation Provides Assistance in Aftermath of Katrina

Santa Clara, Calif., September 19, 2005 – Thales Navigation, its professional products and Magellan® consumer business, provided hundreds of GPS units to search and rescue teams, government agencies, and local authorities in the Gulf Coast region. In addition, Thales donated $50,000 to the American Red Cross.

“The loss of life and property as a result of Hurricane Katrina deeply saddened all of us at Thales,” said Amanda Higgins, Senior Director of Corporate Communications.  “We found ourselves asking how we can help and do so mostly efficiently.  Our answer was to immediately put GPS units in the hands of rescue teams, including Bear Search & Rescue, Convoy of Hope and many others headed to New Orleans and the Gulf Coast region.” 

Thales donated a wide range of its products, including its Magellan GPS handhelds, Magellan RoadMate portable vehicle navigation systems, and MobileMapper Pro GIS/GPS data collectors.

About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group serving the defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of 10 billion euros in 2004.

Thales’ navigation business unit develops and manufactures world leading positioning, navigation and guidance equipment.  It markets its Magellan brand GPS solutions in the consumer electronics, recreation, and automotive markets, and its GPS and GNSS professional products in the survey, GIS/Mapping, and OEM markets.  Key innovations include the first U.S. commercial hand-held GPS receiver for positioning and navigation, and the first handheld GPS with industry standard Secure Digital Memory Card capabilities.  Thales’ navigation business unit is headquartered in Santa Clara, CA and has worldwide operations.  For more information, visit http://www.thalesgroup.com/navigation.