Siemens to acquire Pixeom’s edge technology for factory automation

Siemens is planning to acquire edge technology from the U.S. company Pixeom in a move the company says will strengthen its industrial edge portfolio.

The technology will add software components for edge runtime and for device management. Siemens Industrial Edge provides an ecosystem that enables the flexible provision and use of apps. This means, for example, that appropriate apps can analyze data locally at the machine and send relevant data to the higher-level Industrial Edge Management System for global analytics.

With the resulting Industrial Edge ecosystem, industrial companies can use production data to react more flexibly to changes in conditions.

Siemens intends to acquire this technology from Pixeom and use it in the Business Unit Factory Automation, which is part of Siemens Digital Industries.

“Cutting-edge technologies such as edge computing open up new scope for automation,” says Ralf-Michael Franke, CEO of Business Unit Factory Automation. “With Siemens Industrial Edge, we are creating an open edge ecosystem which offers benefits for companies of any size.”

Siemens is using Docker standard container technology: the provision of apps in the management system will therefore be just as simple as functional upgrades and updates of edge devices in the factory from a central point.

Pixeom has sites in San Jose, California and Udaipur, India and employs 81 people worldwide. Closing of the transaction is planned for the fourth quarter of 2019. Both companies have agreed not to comment on the financial details of the transaction.