Industrial manufacturing firm Siemens is set to acquire Michigan-based 3D design and simulation software developer Altair Engineering Inc., in a deal worth approximately $10 billion.
Siemens’ CEO Roland Busch believes the acquisition strengthens the company’s position as a leading technology firm and industrial software provider. He added that combining Altair’s computational and artificial intelligence expertise with Siemens’ Xcelerator platform will create the “world’s most complete AI-powered design and simulation portfolio.”
Through the acquisition, Siemens expects to achieve substantial revenue growth. The firm believes the transaction will increase its digital business revenue by 8%, adding around €600 million to the €7.3 billion reported by the digital business in FY 2023.
Altair shareholders are set to receive $113 per share in the deal, which represents a 19% premium to Altair’s unaffected closing price on October 21, 2024. The transaction is expected to be EPS (pre-PPA) accretive two years after the deal is closed.
“Acquiring Altair marks a significant milestone for Siemens. This strategic investment aligns with our commitment to accelerate the digital and sustainability transformations of our customers by combining the real and digital worlds,” stated Busch. He called the deal a “logical next step” for the company, bolstering its efforts to democratize “the benefits of data and AI for entire industries.”
The acquisition remains subject to customary conditions. Siemens expects to close the transaction within the second half of 2025.
Siemens to acquire Altair in $10 billion deal
The acquisition, Siemens’ third-largest to date, will see the firm combine its products with Altair’s software portfolio and provide Altair with its global footprint, industrial enterprise and customer base. This is expected to provide $500 million per year in the medium term, and over $1 billion per year in the long term. On a short-term basis, Siemens expects to achieve cost synergies which will translate to a $150 million EBITDA impact within two years.
Siemens will fully finance the acquisition with cash from its existing resources and balance sheet. The cash proceeds generated from Siemens’ closed divestment of Innomotics will support its preemptive deleveraging. The company will also leverage its financial potential generated from the sales of shares in listed entities to support the transaction.
Ralf P. Thomas, CFO of Siemens AG, called the deal a “highly synergistic” acquisition which underpins Siemens’ “stringent capital allocation, balancing investments and shareholder returns on the basis of a strong balance sheet.”
James Scapa, Founder and CEO of Altair, argued that the deal combines two complementary “leaders in the engineering software space.” The acquisition aligns Altair’s extensive portfolio in simulation, data science, and high-performance computing (HPC) with Siemens’ expertise in mechanical and electronic design automation (EDA). “Siemens’ outstanding technology, strategic customer relationships, and honest, technical culture is an excellent fit for Altair to continue its journey driving innovation with computational intelligence,” added Scapa.
According to Siemens, this consolidation of complementary portfolios will enhance the company’s Digital Twin to offer full-suite, physics-based, simulation capabilities as part of the Siemens Xcelerator. This AI-powered business platform is designed to support customer’s digital transformation.
Altair’s data science and AI-based simulation capabilities reportedly allow users to accelerate design iterations and cut time-to-market. Its data science capabilities are also expected to enhance Siemens’ industrial domain expertise in product lifecycle and manufacturing processes.
Expanding design and simulation software
Siemens’ acquisition of Altair represents the second largest in the software space this year, with $369 billion recorded so far in 2024, according to a report from the Financial Times. The latest deal follows the news at the start of the year that US-based chip design software provider Synopsys acquired Ansys, a leading simulation software developer.
Worth $35 billion, the cash-and-stock deal saw Ansys shareholders receive $197 in cash and 0.345 shares of Synopsys common stock for each share of Ansys. Following news of the transaction, Synopsys shares grew 3.8% to $513. Ansys’ shares, however, fell 4.8% to $329.86.
Both companies stated that the combination will meet customer desire to fuse “electronics and physics,” addressing chipmaker demand to design larger appliances. The deal also sought to expand Synopsys’ reach to automotive, aviation, and industrial equipment manufacturers, with Ansys already possessing a strong presence within these industries.
Elsewhere, designs and simulation developers have attracted investor funding to support the growth of their AI-powered tools. It was announced last year that London-based 3D printing software developer Ai Build has raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round.
This capital is being used to accelerate Ai Build’s product roadmap and expand the reach of AI-powered software for 3D printing. The company’s AiSync software uses AI and machine learning (ML) to optimize additive manufacturing tool paths and enhance quality control for industrial 3D printing applications.
Similarly, California-based R&D software developer Albert Invent completed a $7.5 million seed funding round in June 2023. The company’s key offering, called Albert, is a secure and collaborative end-to-end digital R&D platform. It leverages AI and ML to conduct experiment simulations and features a growing database of industry standards and over 50,000 commercially available materials. Albert used the funding to grow its digital tool and onboard more chemistry and materials science companies.
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Featured image shows Siemens’ Munich-based corporate headquarters. Photo via Siemens.
