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Schneider Electric Announces $22.6 Billion Acquisition of PTC to Expand AI Business
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Schneider Electric of France announced on October 5 that it would acquire the U.S. software company PTC for approximately US$22.6 billion (about RMB 151.654 billion) in an all-cash transaction, further expanding its portfolio of industrial software and AI-enabled businesses. The transaction values PTC at US$205 per share, a premium of more than 40% over its closing price on the previous trading day, and is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2027.
Schneider was once best known for industrial components such as fuses and circuit breakers, but is now focused on building the core infrastructure of data centers, offering everything from cooling equipment and server racks to critical power-distribution systems. Surging demand for data centers in the United States is driving Schneider’s earnings growth, providing it with an increasingly significant source of revenue and helping offset some of the weakness in the traditional electrical-equipment market.
Headquartered in Boston, PTC provides software solutions for product design, manufacturing, and service operations across a range of industries. It has benefited from rising demand for its artificial-intelligence tools. PTC’s shares have fallen approximately 30% over the past 12 months, leaving the company with a market capitalization of about US$15.6 billion; Schneider Electric’s market capitalization is approximately €175 billion. Schneider said that bridge financing for the roughly €22 billion cash consideration has been arranged by Morgan Stanley and Société Générale.
In recent months, Schneider has continued to pursue expansion through acquisitions: in June, it agreed to acquire Cognite in an all-cash transaction valued at US$3.1 billion, and last month it announced a €1.2 billion acquisition of Bulgarian smart-home equipment maker Shelly Group SE. Schneider Chief Executive Officer Olivier Blume said in a Bloomberg Television interview on July 30 that the company’s strategy is to strengthen itself through organic growth wherever possible, but whenever it encounters a high-quality technology company that can help accelerate the execution of its broader strategy, it will naturally consider an acquisition.
Competitors such as Siemens are also continuing to strengthen their efforts in shop-floor automation and industrial AI. European manufacturers are deploying artificial intelligence increasingly extensively to improve production efficiency and streamline business processes. Although Europe has fallen behind the United States and China in consumer-facing artificial intelligence, its more than a century of industrial expertise has given it an enormous repository of manufacturing data and substantial accumulated industry knowledge.
Bloomberg previously reported that Autodesk explored a cash-and-stock acquisition of PTC last July but ultimately abandoned the transaction in favor of a smaller bolt-on acquisition. In the current transaction, Morgan Stanley is serving as Schneider Electric’s chief financial adviser, while Evercore is advising PTC.
Blume’s comments indicate that although Schneider remains committed to organic growth, it is also willing to use acquisitions of high-quality technology companies to accelerate the execution of its strategy. Its investments in industrial software and artificial intelligence may therefore expand further.
