Siemens to acquire PLM giant UGS

The activities of UGS are to be assigned to the Siemens Automation and Drives Group (A&D), the group responsible for Siemens CNC and manufacturing automation activities. A&D will become the first supplier for the manufacturing industries to provide an end-to-end software and hardware portfolio encompassing the complete lifecycle of products and production facilities. UGS’ software portfolio covers the entire array of collaborative Product Data Management (cPDM), computer-aided design/computer-aided manufacturing/computer-aided engineering (CAD/CAM/CAE) and digital manufacturing simulation (‘digital factory’). Products developed by A&D include standard products for the manufacturing and process industries and for the electrical installation industry as well as system solutions, for example for machine tools, and solutions for whole industries such as the automation of entire automobile factories or chemical plants. Supplementing this range of products and services, A&D also offers software for linking production and management (horizontal and vertical IT integration) and for optimizing production processes. A&D employs 70,528 people worldwide and in fiscal year 2006 (to September 30) earned a group profit of €1.572 billion on sales of €12.848 billion and orders of €14.108 billion. With a global workforce of 7,300 and more than 47,000 customers in 62 countries, UGS is a supplier to customers in the automotive, aerospace and defense, consumer goods, electronics and machinery industries around the world. The company holds strong revenue and market share positions globally in digital manufacturing and cPDM – the fastest-growing segments within the PLM market. In fiscal 2005, the company reported revenue of just under US$1.2 billion, in the Third Quarter 2006, the company reported its 13th consecutive quarter of year-over-year revenue growth. “With the acquisition of UGS, we combine its competence in the sector of digital factories with our leading know-how in industrial automation. This combination makes our customers’ processes faster, better and more cost efficient. With the unique combination, we underscore our position as a trendsetter in automation systems and bring this business into a new dimension,” said Klaus Kleinfeld, president and CEO of Siemens AG (pictured). With the integration of more than 3,000 software engineers of UGS, Siemens A&D Group will employ around 7000 software experts in total. Helmut Gierse, president of Siemens A&D, explains: "Seamless flow of information and data enable collaboration across the whole value chain. This is becoming crucial to increase productivity in the manufacturing industries where the competitive pressure is constantly rising. With the combined portfolio of A&D and UGS, our customers will be able to enter a complete new scale of efficiency, whether they are manufacturers, engineering service partners, system integrators or machine builders. Integrated solutions will lead to reduced production costs, higher product quality, shorter time to market and increased flexibility toward market trends. On the basis of our unique offer, we aim at a long term continuation of sustainable value enhancement for A&D. “By combining expertise in the physical world of automation and the virtual world of PLM software, Siemens will be the only company able to offer integrated software and hardware solutions to its customers throughout their whole production process. All our future industrial software and hardware products will support today’s and future leading interfaces and standards. We aim to be the first to market with innovative digital factory solutions, which truly unify the engineering and automation domain.”