Siemens goes for it, plans Bewator AB buy
By Chelsie Woods
Updated Thu December 1, 2005
SOLNA, Sweden--Siemens Building Technologies, a company known for a taking a conservative approach when it comes to acquisitions, made an unexpected move in November when it announced plans to buy Bewator AB, a manufacturer of access control and video products.
It marks only the second security acquisition in two years for German corporation Siemens AG, which operates security businesses in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. Its most recent purchase came in 2004, when Siemens acquired CCTV company PhotoScan in the United Kingdom.
Siemens signed an agreement to buy Bewator from the Swedish private equity group EQT. The purchase price was not released, but in 2005 Bewator is forecasted to generate sales of MSEK500 or $60.9 million. The company employs 300 people, with subsidiaries in Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, Belgium and the Netherlands.
Its network of integrators, according to Bewator's web site, spans 45 countries thanks to 10,000 integration partners.
According to Urs Boller, spokesman for Siemens, the company "plans to use Bewator as a platform to grow our access control business." Boller declined to speculate how Siemens may leverage Bewator's product lines in the North American market.
Research firm Frost & Sullivan recently ranked Bewator, a company started in the 1970s, as one of the top three European access control suppliers.
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