Germany industrial giant Siemens has announced a deal to acquire US startup Pixeom for an undisclosed fee, in a move to boost its industrial automation and digitalization division.
Pixeom, responsible for the original Raspberry Pi-based personal cloud platform back in 2014, offers a software-defined edge computing platform to enterprises which runs on commodity hardware.
Siemens said it will acquire ‘technology’ from Pixeom, for use in its ‘factory automation’ business unit, and specifically for its ‘industrial edge’ digitalization platform.
The company said in a statement: “Appropriate apps can analyse data locally at the machine and send relevant data to the higher-level industrial edge management system for global analytics. With this acquisition, Siemens is driving forward the expansion of its digital enterprise portfolio and the integration of cutting-edge technologies for the digital transformation of industry.”
The provision of apps in the management system, based on Docker container technology, will be as simple as functional upgrades and updates of edge devices in the factory from a central point, it said.
Pixeom has sites in San José in California, in the US, and in Udaipur, in India. It employs 81 staff. The deal will close in the fourth quarter, said Siemens.
Ralf-Michael Franke, chief executive of business unit factory automation at Siemens, said: “Cutting edge technologies such as edge computing open up new scope for automation. With Siemens Industrial Edge, we are creating an open edge ecosystem which offers benefits for companies of any size.”
