Siemens recently announced two acquisitions, both of which are innovators in smart building technology.
Siemens Building Technologies Division announced plans to acquire Building Robotics Inc., a market leader in the fast-growing digital workplace experience app domain. Headquartered in Oakland, California, the start-up achieved its leadership position by developing a simple-to-use app that enables people to take control of their environment. Building Robotics, Inc. is best known by the name of its core product, Comfy.
Building Robotics Inc. will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Siemens Industry Inc. and continue to operate as a vendor-agnostic platform provider. The two co-founders CEO Andrew Krioukov and CTO Stephen Dawson-Haggerty will remain in their current position in the management team of Building Robotics Inc. Both parties have agreed not to disclose any figures. Closing is expected in the third quarter of 2018.
“This move further strengthens our leadership position in smart buildings,” said Matthias Rebellius, CEO of Siemens Building Technologies. “With the Comfy app we will bring a consumer-like experience to commercial buildings that simplifies the interaction with buildings to increase employee productivity and engagement.”
“Comfy has successfully redefined the way people interact with their workplaces,” said Andrew Krioukov, CEO and co-founder of Building Robotics Inc. “By joining Siemens, the global leader in total building solutions, we open up greater opportunities to accelerate the development of new functionalities, grow the open protocol ecosystem, and reach more people around the world.”
Siemens also entered into an agreement to acquire Austin, Texas-based Austemper Design Systems Inc., a startup software company that offers analysis, auto-correction and simulation technology. This technology allows customers to test and harden IC designs for functional safety in applications such as automotive, industrial and aerospace systems where functional safety and high reliability are mandatory for compliance to safety standards like ISO 26262.
Siemens will integrate Austemper’s technology into Mentor’s IC verification portfolio as part of Siemens’ larger digitalization strategy, leveraging Siemens’ worldwide sales channel to make this world-class functional safety solution available to companies developing digital twins of safety-critical systems at the heart of autonomous vehicles, smart cities and industrial equipment in Factory 4.0.
“With this acquisition, we continue to build on our commitment to helping our customers quickly bring to market innovations in autonomous vehicles, smart factories and smart cities,” said Tony Hemmelgarn, president and CEO of Siemens PLM Software. “In all of these markets, customers need to innovate more nimbly, but it is imperative they also build these systems with the highest degree of safety in mind. The Austemper technology added to the Mentor IC portfolio, along with the Teamcenter portfolio and Polarion ALM software, will give customers the ability to develop and test digital twins of their systems for the highest degrees of functional safety before manufacture and deployment.”
The terms of the transaction are not disclosed. Siemens expects to close the transaction in July 2018.
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