Mergers and acquisition
Best practice for buyouts
Greg Blackman reports from the European Machine Vision Association’s business conference, where a panel of industry experts were gathered to give advice on navigating the acquisition process
T
here is plenty of merger and acquisition activity in the machine vision market at the moment, a testament to the strength
of the vision sector. Since July 2017 there have been at least 11 takeovers: Imaging Solutions Group is now part of Jadak; Jenoptik acquired Otto Vision Technology and Ovitec; Flir bought two companies, an AI firm and a data analytics supplier for the transport sector; Basler purchased Silicon Soſtware; On Semiconductor bought SensL; Balluff Group became a majority shareholder of Matrix Vision; Wilhelm Stemmer sold Stemmer Imaging; HGH Infrared Systems was acquired by an asset management company; Omron bought Microscan; and Rockwell Automation purchased Odos Imaging. Considering that the
Yates was speaking as part of a panel of industry
experts discussing M&A activity at the European Machine Vision Association’s (EMVA) annual business conference, held in Dubrovnik, Croatia from 7 to 9 June. ‘Valuation of vision companies is pretty strong
right now,’ commented Gabriele Jansen, managing director of M&A machine vision advisory firm Vision Ventures, who was chairing the panel discussion. She put this down to the strong growth perspective of vision firms in traditional factory automation, but also in higher volume markets like logistics and robotics. Tree quarters of all M&A
majority of industrial vision firms are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), selling to a larger company can be a natural step in the growth of the SME. Te SME gets access to resources and markets, while the buyer might gain technology, products, IP, or new vertical or geographical markets. Odos Imaging, for example, sold to Rockwell Automation in November 2017 because Rockwell’s resources as a larger entity meant Odos could continue its growth plans, according to Chris Yates, the then CEO of Odos and now director of advanced technology at Rockwell Automation within the sensing and safety business.
Technology is the most important selling point, but technology on its own is not enough
transactions made in the machine vision sector are 100 per cent acquisitions, according to Jansen, either from within the vision industry, but also increasingly from outside. To a lesser extent, machine
vision companies are acquired by private equity or family
offices, or staged acquisitions by industrial buyers, where a small percentage of the firm is bought and then that share is raised to 100 per cent aſter a couple of years. Tere is also a buy-and-build strategy to create larger vision entities out of a number of smaller acquisitions, such as Lakesight Technologies, which is owned by the Ambienta private equity fund and formed from Tattile, Mikrotron and Chromasens.
What the buyer wants Kai-Udo Modrich, managing director of Carl
4 Imaging and Machine Vision Europe • Yearbook 2018/2019
@imveurope
www.imveurope.com
Zeiss Automated Inspection, noted during the EMVA discussion that buying is driven by the strategy of the purchasing company. ‘For machine vision companies to be attractive, beside the technology, you have to have a clear plan and a clear structure,’ he said Zeiss has made several acquisitions in the field
of machine vision, soſtware and metrology. It bought HGV Vosseler in 2012 to form Carl Zeiss Machine Vision, which was a strategic purchase as HGV Vosseler had a footprint in the automotive industry. ‘You have to know your market,’ Modrich
continued. He said that the technology is the most important selling point, but that technology on its own is not enough. As part of researching
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
