Yaskawa Europe Acquires VIPA Shares

Yaskawa Europe's plan to complete its product portfolio to become a "total solutions provider" is now underway with the recent acquisition of a majority of VIPA's shares.The agreement entails the integration of VIPA's product portfolio of PLCs, I/O modules and HMI with Yaskawa's inverter, ac servo and robot product lines, according to the Drives & Motion Division of Yaskawa. "VIPA is a perfect fit for Yaskawa," said Koichi Takamiya, CEO and regional head for Yaskawa Europe. "There are no overlaps in our product portfolios, but they are very complementary with much synergies to be expected.""The tight cooperation with the global Yaskawa organization provides great growth opportunities for VIPA, particularly in Asia and the Americas," VIPA CEO Wolfgang Seel said."Beside the synergies resulting from the combined and integrated product portfolio, there are more benefits for existing and new Yaskawa customers," Yaskawa Europe President Manfred Stern said. "By adding the engineering resources of (the) Drives & Motion Division and Robotics Division to VIPA, Yaskawa Europe now has a strong development team here in Europe, close to our customers and the markets. The VIPA acquisition, the recent significant investment into the new headquarters infrastructure of the Robotics Division in Germany and the acquisition of Yaskawa Southern Africa earlier this year, proves Yaskawa's commitment to the EMEA region as well as the growth expectations for Europe."