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Nature of Operations
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2014
NATURE OF OPERATIONS [Abstract]  
Nature of Operations

NOTE 1— NATURE OF OPERATIONS

 

(a) Description of Business

 

Acorn Energy, Inc. (“Acorn” or “the Company”) is a Delaware corporation which is holding company focused on technology driven solutions for energy infrastructure asset management. Each of its three businesses are focused on helping its customers achieve greater productivity, reliability, security and efficiency.

 

Through its majority or wholly-owned operating subsidiaries, the Company provides the following services and products:

 

Sonar and acoustic-related solutions for energy, defense and commercial markets and other real-time embedded hardware and software development. These activities are reported in the Company’s Energy & Security Sonar Solutions segment, conducted through its DSIT Solutions Ltd. (“DSIT”) subsidiary. DSIT also has certain IT activities (protocol management software for cancer patients and billing software) and outsourced consulting activities.
   
Smart Grid Distribution Automation. These products and services are provided by the Company’s GridSenseTM subsidiaries (GridSense Inc. in the United States and GridSense Pty Ltd. and CHK GridSense Pty Ltd. in Australia - collectively “GridSense”) which develop, market and sell remote monitoring and control systems to electric utilities and industrial facilities worldwide.
   
Machine-to-machine (“M2M”) critical asset wireless monitoring and control (formerly Power Generation Monitoring). These products and services are provided by the Company’s OmniMetrixTM, LLC (“OmniMetrix”) subsidiary. OmniMetrix also has products which provide cathodic protection for the pipeline industry.
   
The operations of Company’s US Seismic Systems, Inc. subsidiary (“USSI”), which developed and produced “state of the art” fiber optic sensing systems for the energy, commercial security and defense markets operations have been suspended (See Notes 3 and 21) and accordingly are reported in the Company’s discontinued operations.

 

The Company’s operations are based in the United States and Israel. Acorn’s shares are traded on the NASDAQ Global Market under the symbol ACFN.

 

See Note 18 for segment information and major customers.

 

(b) Accounting Principles

 

The consolidated financial statements have been prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (“GAAP”).

 

(c) Use of Estimates in Preparation of Financial Statements

 

The preparation of consolidated financial statements requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities as of the date of the financial statements, and the reported amounts of revenues and expenses during the reporting periods.

 

As applicable to these consolidated financial statements, the most significant estimates and assumptions relate to percentages of completion with respect to revenue recognition, uncertainties with respect to income taxes, inventories, contingencies, purchase price allocations and analyses of the possible impairments.

 

(d) Amounts in the footnotes in the Financial Statements

 

All dollar amounts in the footnotes of the consolidated financial statements are in thousands except for per share data.