n NEWS October 2026 www.drivesncontrols.com 6 Schneider Electric buys PTC for $22.6bn p Vinci Energies has acquired CDD Automation Solutions, the Peterboroughbased systems integrator that focuses on the food and feed industry. CCD will enhance services offered by Vinci Energies in the UK & Ireland through its Actemium brand. Terms of the transaction have not been revealed. CDD, founded in 1981 and part of the Bühler Group since 1991, offers bespoke control systems. It has 32 employees. p Yorkshire-based Total Automated Solutions (TAS) has launched a robotics proof-of-concept rental service, allowing manufacturers to evaluate automation systems in their plants before making a full investment. It says that the rental model addresses a major barrier to robotic adoption: uncertainty over whether proposed systems will deliver the required improvements in productivity, quality, safety and costs. Manufacturers rent a system for a trial period – typically 2-6 months. It can be installed at their facility or in a workshop. TAS engineers assess the process, configure and program the robot, and integrate grippers, guards and safety systems. www.tasweb.uk p Delta has opened a 600m² Automation & Robotics Centre in Stuttgart, Germany, to serve as a customer experience, demonstration and collaboration hub, giving customers, partners and integrators the opportunity to explore Delta's robotics and automation technologies. Through live demonstrations and applications, visitors can experience how Delta's systems can help to boost productivity and flexibility, and accelerate smart manufacturing. p Nidec Drives has expanded its manufacturing capacity in Spain to produce its DFS (Drive Freestanding) range, bringing high-power drives closer to customers in Southern Europe. The move will help to cut lead times, strengthen supply flexibility, and provide greater access to tested, factoryconfigured drive systems. p Siemens has formed a partnership with the German-based B2B platform, Sparepartsnow that will make automation products refurbished by Siemens available across Europe. The products are restored to their original technical specifications and performance characteristics. The agreement initially covers a limited portfolio of products, such as drives, controls and HMIs, but there are plans to expand both the product range and regional availability. p After three years of falling turnover, Europe’s machine vision industry will grow by 3% this year, according to its trade body, VDMA Machine Vision. It admits, however, that “economic conditions remain challenging”, with growth opportunities mainly coming from North America and Asia. Although demand for components such as cameras, sensors and optics is growing, revenues from the systems segment fell by 6% in 2025. AI is a key driver, opening up new vision applications. NEWS BRIEFS SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC IS BUYING the US industrial software giant PTC in a deal that values PTC at around $22.6bn. The acquisition will triple Schneider’s total addressable market in industrial software, including in discrete and hybrid manufacturing. Software will now represent around 24% of its business. “The acquisition of PTC represents an important step forward in our ambition to lead the new era of energy and industrial intelligence,” says Schneider’s CEO, Olivier Blum. “Together, we are creating the industry’s most complete software and AI powerhouse and highest-quality portfolio bridging the physical and digital worlds. PTC is a global leader in industrial product design, engineering and data management, with more than 30,000 customers globally. Its CAD (computer-aided design), PLM (product lifecycle management), ALM (application lifecycle management) and SLM (service lifecycle management) products help customers to design complex physical products and manage product and engineering data across the entire lifecycle. In 2025, PTC generated revenues of €2.4bn and these are predicted to grow by around 10% a year in the period to 2029. PTC has particular strengths in discrete and hybrid manufacturing. Schneider says that PTC complements its industrial AI data foundation, which will be further enhanced by its planned acquisition of Cognite, adding critical product and engineering data to its existing foundation of process and energy data. The transaction also extends Schneider’s asset lifecycle platform upstream into product design and engineering, creating an end-to-end industrial software and intelligence platform. Schneider argues that the combined businesses will: n Create a leading, scaled, open and interoperable industrial software and AI franchise and create one of the largest industrial software portfolios, boosting software and services revenues to around 24% of the group’s revenues. It will have more than 15,000 software employees and more than 50,000 software customers. PTC also plugs a gap in Schneider’s product lifecycle and industrial software portfolio, while preserving an open-by-design approach. n Bridge the physical and digital worlds from design and build, to operate and maintain n Establish a unified digital thread across products and machines, and processes and energy systems, accelerating energy and industrial intelligence. n Expand Schneider’s total addressable market in industrial software by about three times, while avoiding concentrations in vertical markets. Commenting on the planned acquisition, Matthieu Kulezak, a senior analyst with Interact Analysis, says: “Acquiring PTC gives Schneider a shortcut into product engineering, extending its reach beyond plant operations and energy management into the decisions manufacturers make when designing products. Combined with Aveva and the proposed Cognite acquisition, PTC could help Schneider connect engineering and operational data, putting it in a stronger position to compete with Siemens across the industrial lifecycle.” The deal is expected to close by the third quarter of 2027. Schneider says that acquiring PTC will create “the industry’s most complete software and AI powerhouse”
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