Why Some M&As Work Out So Well: OMRON-Adept

WEBCAST: M&As that Make Sense…and Why: OMRON and Adept

Some mergers and acquisitions are very beneficial to the business and technology of robotics while others are questionable or just plain strange?

Amazon acquires Kiva. ABB acquires Gomtec and SVIA. KUKA acquires Reis Robotics and Swisslog. Teradyne acquires Universal Robots. All great moves!

All great acquisitions that produced revenue from the moment of their acquisition.

Now comes OMRON’s acquisition of Adept, America’s largest robot manufacturer.

What’s up with that? Let’s take it apart and see what OMRON saw in the deal and how OMRON/Adept plan to impact the marketplace.

Taking a look at that deal offers a nice perspective on what’s happening in robotics and how companies are maneuvering to adapt to change. How high-tech marriages that are well-made can be lasting and healthy for the companies involved as well as for robotics.

So, what do we know and what are we curious about in the OMRON/Adept deal? The facts are these:

OMRON spent $200 million in cash for Adept. That says something right there.
The new entity has a new name: OMRON Adept Technologies.
Deep-pocketed OMRON ($9 billion annually) will heavily invest in Adept R&D (OMRON is already a global leader in R&D investment).
What could such investments mean for the OMRON/Adept product offerings?
Also, 49 best-in-class robots have been added to OMRON’s portfolio, enabling the pair to now offer all three primary classes of robots together with an established service infrastructure.
That portfolio now boasts six-axis articulated robots, which neatly fit OMRON’s Sysmac automation platform and programming environment.
One of those new robots is the Quattro that lays claim to being the world’s fastest industrial robot, which is specifically designed for high-speed applications: e.g. packaging, manufacturing, assembly and material handling.
Seems like the Adept machines dovetail perfectly into OMRON’s pre-Adept automation strategy. Do they?
How does this acquisition position this new pair in the marketplace and with its new technology advances like sensors, AI and collaborative robotics?

Join us for our webcast as we ask OMRON and Adept, what’s up?