Itronix begins name switch
After nearly 20 years in business and a rotating set of owners, Itronix Corp. is ready for its next, and maybe final, name change.
As of Monday, the Spokane Valley technology company is officially “Itronix, a General Dynamics company,” said spokeswoman Marie Hartis.
By the end of the year the name becomes simply General Dynamics, the large global contractor that purchased Itronix in September 2005.
Itronix makes rugged and ultrarugged laptop and handheld computers and sells to the defense and commercial markets, including mobile service teams and telecommunications.
Visitors to the Itronix Web site on Monday saw a link to the new corporate site, www.gd-computing.com, said Hartis.
The Itronix.com site will be maintained for a period, she added. “For purposes of keeping active all those Web links back to Itronix.com, there will be a legacy Itronix site” until the change to www.gd-computing.com is final, said Hartis.
The name change is the logical extension of the Itronix sale to General Dynamics, she added. “In the defense space, it makes obvious sense to use the name General Dynamics. It’s so well-known and has obvious positive value.”
Itronix has about 550 global employees and 450 at its Spokane Valley building. Visitors to that building now cannot find the name Itronix anywhere outside the building. A large rock outside the entrance has the General Dynamics name clearly displayed.
Even the company’s promotional canary-yellow Hummer vehicle has been retagged with the General Dynamics name, replacing Itronix.
All office letterhead, business cards and e-mail addresses will also be replaced by the end of 2006, said Hartis.
Itronix Global Sales and Marketing Manager Matt Gerber said he has mixed feelings about the name change. “I’ve spent nine years working on helping grow this place. We’ve tripled it in size in that time, so it’s sad to see that part of it go,” he said.
“But I’m also very glad we’re part of General Dynamics. This is a global company whose name is recognized anywhere you go.”
Spun off in the late 1980s from Itron Inc. — a publicly traded producer of meters and software services for the utility industry — Itronix had a series of corporate owners over the course of 15 years. In 2003, then-parent Acterna Corp. sold Itronix to San Francisco-based venture firm Golden Gate Capital.
General Dynamics purchased Itronix from Golden Gate last year for an undisclosed amount.
General Dynamics, headquartered in Falls Church, Va., employs about 82,000 people worldwide and had 2005 revenues of $21.2 billion. The Itronix rugged computing business is part of General Dynamics’ C4 Systems group, which sells and supports communication systems, information networking and specialized computing products.