Schneider Electric confirms $22.6bn deal to buy US software firm PTC

Schneider Electric has confirmed it will buy US software firm PTC in an all-cash deal for $205 a share, valuing the Boston-based company’s equity at about $22.6 billion — the largest acquisition in the French engineering giant’s history.

The definitive agreement, announced on Monday, implies an enterprise value of $23.7 billion and represents a 42.3 per cent premium to PTC’s last closing price, Reuters reported. The deal, which follows Sunday’s Financial Times report that the companies were nearing an agreement, is expected to close in the third quarter of 2027 and will be financed through a combination of equity and new debt.

Schneider said the acquisition would create a scaled industrial-software and AI business, expecting €250 million in annual run-rate cost savings by the third year after closing alongside about €800 million in expected revenue synergies. PTC’s board has recommended shareholders approve the deal, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The move deepens Schneider’s push into software — it agreed to buy AI software provider Cognite in June — as booming demand for data centres drives its earnings. Schneider shares fell 4.7 per cent in pre-market trading as investors weighed the premium. “Large-scale M&A is typically unwelcome in the first instance by European investors,” J.P. Morgan analysts wrote in a note, though they added Schneider’s deals have typically proven strategically astute.