Belden Inc., a major player in signal transmission solutions for mission critical applications, entered into a definitive agreement to acquire GarrettCom, a provider of advanced industrial networking products and smart grid solutions.
Officials with Belden said the acquisition extends the company's leadership position as an industrial networking solutions provider by adding a recognized leader in industrial grade switches, routers, converters, serial communications, and security software.
Company officials said that GarrettCom's premium hardened networking products complement Belden's existing portfolio of Hirschmann brand high-availability industrial networking solutions and will enable Belden to address the growing needs of customers across a more diverse set of end market applications.
GarrettCom sells its products into power utilities, surveillance and security, transportation, specialty industrial automation, telecommunications, and similar demanding harsh-environment verticals through a network of system integrators, OEMs, and international distributors.
According to company officials, Belden will fund the purchase price with cash on hand and expects the acquisition to be completed by calendar year-end 2010. Belden expects the business will be break-even on a GAAP basis in fiscal year 2011.
“Belden’s Hirschmann brand has a huge portfolio of industrial Ethernet products. ARC’s latest Market Outlook report (“Industrial Ethernet Switches Worldwide Outlook”, covering 2009-2014) shows Belden/Hirschmann as the global market share leader. What they lack is a leading position in the electric power T&D space,” said Harry Forbes, ARC Advisory Group, in a statement.
Forbes said that in ARC’s view, this acquisition speaks to the growing spending for smart metering and smart grid communications, which is becoming an opportunity requiring action.
“This was also indicated earlier this year by Cisco’s “Connected Grid” product plan announcement. With the addition of GarrettCom, Belden’s share now moves ahead of Cisco's in this segment,” he said.
Anil Sharma is a contributing editor for IoTevolutionworld. To read more of his articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by
Jaclyn Allard
