SAN MATEO, Calif. — Vehicle finance and telematics company Spireon Inc. has acquired privately held Inilex, adding the GPS services provider’s flagship Skylink GPS tracking service to its list of offerings.

Officials said yesterday during a webcast that the aquisition will allow it to offer its 2.3 million-vehicle subscriber base with more services and solutions. The company is also targeting the automotive retail segment with Inilex’s Skylink.

"We are very excited to extend Spireon's Internet of Things platform with the addition of Inilex's new-car dealer solutions," said Jared Ruger, partner at Bertram Capital. "We see a tremendous opportunity to introduce additional connected-car applications to Spireon's installed base of 2.3 million active vehicle subscribers."

Dealers can use Skylink’s GPS tracker to keep track of their vehicle inventory. But because the GPS tracker remains active for the life of the vehicle, Spireon officials said dealers can upsell the system’s vehicle-recovery services and other add-on consumer applications that rely on GPS-tracking technology.

And by using GPS vs. proprietary radios, cars can be tracked anywhere using an internet-connected device. Because of this, Skylink can work in much the same way as applications like Apple’s Find My iPhone, which allows iPhone owners to track down their phone if goes missing or is stolen.

Skylink combines a dedicated 24/7 call-recovery center that works with local law enforcement and cloud-based phone applications to recover vehicles as quickly as possible. In addition to car recovery, the system can be used to monitor how a vehicle is being driven or for geo-fencing purposes.

"The acquisition of Skylink expands Spireon's reach into the new-car dealer segment, and automatically positions it as a leader across the vehicle life cycle," said Marc Brungger, CEO of Spireon. "New-car dealers have strongly told us they need new ways to increase revenue by tapping into the trend for offering consumer applications that can fully utilize the data coming from connected cars."