ABB has announced the acquisition of B&R. According to ABB, the move will close its historic gap in machine and factory automation.
B&R, which specializes in PLCs, IPCs and servo motion-based machine and factory automation, in a release has committed to a mid-term sales ambition greater than $1 billion. Management and founders from B&R will support the integration phase as advisers with its Eggelsberg, Austria-based headquarters becoming ABB’s global center for machine and factory automation.
Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB CEO
“B&R is a gem in the world of machine and factory automation and this combination is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity," said ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer. "This transaction marks a true milestone for ABB, as B&R will close the historic gap within ABB’s automation offering. This is a perfect fit and will make us the only industrial automation provider offering customers the entire spectrum of technology and software solutions around measurement, control, actuation, robotics, digitalization and electrification,”“This combination offers fantastic opportunities for B&R, its customers and employees," said B&R co-founder Josef Rainer. "We are convinced that ABB offers the best platform for the next chapter of our growth story. ABB’s global presence, digital offering and complementary portfolio will be key for us to further accelerate our pace of innovation and growth."
“This is a strong signal for our employees as our operations in Eggelsberg will become ABB’s global center for machine and factory automation,” said Erwin Bernecker, co-founder of B&R. “The most important thing to me is that the companies and their people fit so well together and that our founding location will play such a key role.”
The purchase price was not disclosed.
