Schneider Electric Expands in AI With $22.6 Billion PTC Purchase

Schneider Electric SE agreed to buy PTC Inc. for about $22.6 billion, further expanding its portfolio of industrial software and offerings powered by artificial intelligence.

The French conglomerate will buy Boston-based PTC for $205 per share in an all-cash deal expected to close by the third quarter of 2027, according to a statement Monday. That’s a premium of more than 40% to PTC’s last closing price, Schneider said.

The company has been expanding through acquisitions in recent months to tap into an accelerating push to modernize factories as European manufacturers increasingly implement AI to improve efficiency and streamline processes.

Rivals like Siemens AG are also pushing further into automation and AI for the shop floor. Europe has fallen behind the US and China in consumer AI, but it has a deep trove of production and manufacturing data and expertise from an industrial sector stretching back more than a century.

In June, Schneider agreed to buy Cognite in a $3.1 billion all-cash deal, and last month announced the €1.2 billion acquisition of Shelly Group SE, a Bulgarian firm that makes smart devices for the home.

“Our strategy is to grow Schneider organically as much as possible, but every time we find great tech companies that help us to accelerate that strategy of course we will look at it,” Chief Executive Officer Olivier Blum told Bloomberg TV on July 30.

Schneider said the total cash consideration of approximately €22 billion for PTC is secured through a bridge facility provided by Morgan Stanley and Société Générale.

PTC’s shares are down about 30% over the last 12 months, giving the company a market value of around $15.6 billion. Schneider has a market value of about €175 billion ($197 billion).

Autodesk Inc. was pursuing PTC in July last year with a cash-and-stock transaction but ultimately dropped the deal for a strategy of smaller tuck-in acquisitions, Bloomberg News reported at the time.

Morgan Stanley is lead financial adviser to Schneider on the transaction, while Evercore is serving as adviser to PTC.