Global electronics component distributer Arrow Electronics has acquired product engineering and software services company eInfochips for a reported $284 million.
EInfochips has headquarters in both San Jose, California and Ahmedebad, India and was founded by Intel chip designer Pratul Shroff in 1994 to offer high-tech design services such as chip design. The value of its purchase by Arrow Electronics has not been officially disclosed, but India’s Economic Times reported it as being Rs 1,800 crore, or around $284 million. The deal is expected to close in late January.
Arrow’s decision to acquire eInfochips signals that IoT will continue to be a big focus for the company in 2018. In a statement, Michael Long, Arrow’s CEO, president and chairman, said that the purchase will advance the company’s IoT strategy, expand its offerings and help it move into what he called “a growing IoT services market.”
He added that the acquisition will add over 1,500 IoT solution architects, engineers and software development resources to Arrow’s “already leading position in IoT design services”.
Read more: Arrow Electronics expands Hong Kong IoT lab
Complementary portfolios
Certainly, eInfochips’ track record in designing chips for IoT products will be a boost for Arrow. The acquired company has customers across the retail, industrial automation, healthcare and aerospace industries, while Arrow already has its own IoT portfolio, ‘Sensor to Sunset’, providing smart device makers with the sensors, wireless connectivity, gateways, analytics and security technologies they need to build their products.
Now, Arrow will be able to add eInfochips’ tools around engineering, embedded software development, mobile device connectivity and security and app development into its repertoire.
“Arrow has redefined design engineering with our industry-leading eDesign digital platform. Customers now collaborate on Arrow.com with hundreds of online-enabled engineers. Our engineers help customers with online reference designs, cloud-based design tools, and our eDesign platform,” said Matt Anderson, chief digital officer of Arrow. “Connecting eInfochips’ IoT capabilities and engineers to our eDesign platform will substantially augment the scale of eInfochips’ services, delivered via digital tools, to Arrow’s 125,000 customers.”
Pratul Shroff of eInfochips said that he was “proud” that the acquisition had brought a $23.8 billion revenue Fortune 118 corporation to Ahmedabad, Gujarat, where many of the company’s staff are based. “This acquisition is also a testament to our engineering execution, expertise in connected devices and connecting them to the cloud, and the trust that our clients place in us. We are excited to join forces with Arrow to further add value to our clients across the world,” he said.