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Charlotte Stonestreet
Managing Editor |
ABB plans expansion in US
07 September 2017
Following recent reports that General Electric has resumed negotiations to sell its industrial solutions business to ABB, after the U.S. industrial conglomerate moderated its price expectations, ABB CEO Ulrich Spiesshofer has indicated that that the Swiss engineering company plans to expand its US industrial robot factory in Michigan, which delivered its first robot in March.
According to Reuters ABB is counting on continued growth in demand for industrial robots from automotive and other sectors, such as the food and beverage industry, Spiesshofer said.
Spiesshofer has been reshaping ABB’s portfolio of businesses through acquisitions and divestitures for the past four years. He declined to comment on whether he is discussing the acquisition of GE’s industrial solutions business
ABB is scouting for potential acquisitions in certain areas, such as planning software, and those would likely be smaller deals, Spiesshofer said.
ABB will be “brutally disciplined” in what it buys, he said, noting that the company “could have afforded” to buy industrial robot maker Kuka last year, but walked away “because the economics did not fit what we want to do.”
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