Phoenix Contact Acquires Entivity
Purchase follows an 18-month alliance with the PC-based controls vendor.
Consummating what had been an 18-month courtship, Phoenix Contact Inc., a vendor of electronic components and connection systems, has acquired Entivity Inc., a developer of PC-based control. The union, which began as a partnership in November 2002, will result in a bundled control product consisting of Phoenix Contact hardware with Entivity flowchart programming logic, integrated HMI, motion control, PID loop, productivity tools and enterprise connectivity.
"We entered into the partnership to test out a theory and see if it would work well," Jack Nehlig, president of Phoenix Contact U.S.A., said in an interview. "We really believed it would. And it did. Once we put our packages together, customers realized the value the two of us brought." Discussions to formalize the partnership began about six months ago, he says. Financial details of the acquisition were not released.
While Phoenix Contact (Blomberg, Germany) had already started down the path to add PC-based control to its factory automation offerings (the company bought German-based KW Software GmbH in 2001), Entivity benefits more because it now has a global parent company to build out of what has become a confining market.
According to an ARC Advisory Group study conducted in 2002, the combined revenues for vendors selling soft logic, soft motion control and soft CNC amounted to only a $70 million market. "When you design a control solution, the software only represents 10% of the system," says Dick Slansky, an ARC analyst. "If you try to go out to the market with a business model based only on software, you're not playing with a lot of marbles to begin with."
Those dynamics have been the major reasons behind consolidation in soft control. Entivity was the result of the 2001 merger between Steeplechase Software and Think & Do Software. Only a few other companies, like Beckhoff Automation, have had the staying power to compete against the likes of the big players including Rockwell Automation, GE Fanuc Automation North America Inc. and Siemens Energy & Automation.
Entivity is now a wholly owned division of Phoenix Contact's Automation Systems group, led by David Skelton. The acquisition has resulted in the departure of Entivity CEO, Ken Spenser, and CFO, Alger Faber. Jeff Fisher, Entivity's vice president of sales and operations, continues in his post, as does the remainder of the Entivity staff.
TURCK ABSORBS ALL OF INTERLINKBT
After more than six years as a joint venture between Turck Inc. and Banner Engineering Corp., InterlinkBT, a developer of bus network I/O and other products, has been fully acquired by Turck. InterlinkBT developed a set of network I/O systems and interconnection products for industrial networks, including Profibus, DeviceNet and Fieldbus. Banner sold its interest in InterlinkBTto Turck in April, says Bob Svacina, marketing director at InterlinkBT. Turck had held the majority interest in the joint venture since its formation. The brand name InterlinkBT will be retired. Svacina also said that Murray Death, who was president of InterlinkBT, has been named VP and chief marketing officer for Turck. - David R. Brousell
EPICOR READIES "SONOMA" RELEASE
Following a nearly two-year development effort, Epicor Software Corp. was expected last month to release a Microsoft .Net framework for its Vantage and Vista product lines. The development had been code named Sonoma. New versions of Vantage and Vista, both designated 8.0, will have a "pure .NET interface," says Jim Lahner, vice president. Both product lines have been based on technology from Progress Software Corp. Lahner also said that he expects the installed base of Vantage users, which numbers about 1,300, and the base of Vista customers, at about 2,500, to migrate to the new framework over the next several years. Separately, Epicor said it has completed the acquisition of Scala Business Solutions. The acquisition adds about 5,000 customers to Epicor's base of 15,000 customers. - D.R.B.
MRO OUTLINES SERVICE DELIVERY PLAN
At its annual users group conference, executives of MRO Software Inc. outlined plans for its next-generation asset management software, including new service management components. A new version of the MAXIMO enterprise suite, which will ship in the first half of 2005, includes 110 application segments-double the applications available in the current version. Labor management, certification and IT service management are just some of the features added to help align business goals with maintenance strategies. "Companies view assets differently now," says MRO CEO, Chip Drapeau. "There's an alignment of performance with the business objectives." To help its clients adjust to new business processes, MRO is leveraging the J2EE-based Web services architecture upon which MAXIMO is built. - Stephanie Neil
OPC FOUNDATION NAMES EXECUTIVE
The OPC Foundation has named a full-time executive team to reinforce its charter of developing worldwide industry standards for interoperability and data transfer in factory and process automation. Tom Burke, who has been part of the foundation since its inception in 1996 and has worked for Rockwell Automation for more than 20 years, has been appointed to the role of full-time executive director. Burke's appointment follows the announcement in June naming Rashesh Mody as the foundation's CTO. - S.N.
UGS CELEBRATES INDEPENDENCE
At UGS' 2004 Analyst and Media Forum in New York, Tony Affuso, chairman, CEO and president of the company, described the recent spin-off from EDS as giving UGS "the freedom and independence to do what we need to do" and that "we have been able to do more in the past few months with our possible partners than we did with EDS for over 10 years." As an independent company, UGS will be able to provide greater value to customers, form relationships with business partners-a practice mostly forbidden under EDS-pursue growth with strategic flexibility and reinvest cash back into the business, Affuso said. According to Doug Barnett, CFO at UGS, the company will continue to invest in excess of $200 million annually into research and development. - Greg MacSweeney
SAP DEAL BOLSTERS DATA MANAGEMENT PUSH
SAP America's acquisition of privately-held A2i Inc. will enable the company to deliver on a planned fall update of its SAP Master Data Management (MDM) product, officials said. The purchase of A2i's xCAT product content management and catalog publishing product will allow SAP to add to the current MDM product functionality such as enterprise product content management, data aggregation and harmonization and development of Web-based electronic catalogs for sell-side and procurement applications. Those MDM capabilities had been under development within SAP, a company official said, but the acquisition of A2i will "expedite" the addition of new functionality to the MDM product. MDM is part of SAP's NetWeaver integration, development and deployment infrastructure software stack. An official said most of A2i's 88 employees are expected to join SAP. It has not yet been determined, however, if A2i founder and CEO, Ariel Hazi, will join SAP. - Jeff Moad
MANUGISTICS NAMES COWAN CEO
Joe Cowan has joined Manugistics Group as CEO. He also will serve as director of demand and supply chain management solutions, and will guide the company through what former CEO Gregory J. Owens describes as a "challenging market." Despite numerous customer wins the company has struggled and has not made a profit this decade. Cowan most recently served as president and CEO at EXE Technologies, a company acquired by SSA Global in December 2003. Prior to EXE, Cowan served as president and CEO at Invensys Automation & Information Systems/Wonderware. He has background experience with companies such as Texas Instruments, Eurotherm Corp. and Monsanto. Owens, who continues as chairman, will focus on strategic planning and new business. - Hallie Forcinio
SYMBOL ACQUIRES MATRICS FOR ITS RFID ASSETS
Symbol Technologies Inc. has jumped forward in its plan to become a player in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology with the $230 million acquisition of Matrics Inc. The deal adds RFID tags and readers to Symbol's product line. Particularly significant is Matrics' multi-protocol AR 400 reader, which is designed to be upgradeable to the Generation 2 Electronic Product Code (EPC) standard specified in many RFID mandates. "The acquisition of Matrics allows Symbol to leapfrog the industry by acquiring ... tag and fixed reader products to complement their prototype [RFID] mobile computing offering," writes Chantal Polsonetti, VP, ARC Advisory Group, in a July report. - H.F.
IBM PUSHES WEBSPHERE PRODUCT CENTER
Leveraging technology from its acquisition of Trigo Technologies, IBM has assembled a new class of middleware designed to help build a central repository of all information related to products that can be synchronized with internal systems, as well as shared across a global supply chain. The new IBM WebSphere Product Center Version 5, what IBM and others are calling product information management software, is positioned as the "system of record" for the 90% of product information that isn't housed in other enterprise systems like ERP and product lifecycle management (PLM). "There isn't a single place to assemble all information related to bringing a product to market," explains Dan Druker, IBM's director of product information management. One of the drivers for this kind of software is Global Data Synchronization, a standards-based process by which manufacturers and retailers can exchange product information across a global supply chain. Radio frequency identification (RFID) technology is another, since PLM software can be used to integrate information read from RFID tags into a core business system. - Beth Stackpole