Brooks Automation acquires SimCon, European distributor for Brooks' simulation, scheduling, production analysis and real-time dispatching software
Brooks Automation (NASDAQ:BRKS), a leading supplier of tool and factory hardware and software automation solutions for the semiconductor industry, announced today that it has acquired SimCon N.V. (Simulation Consulting), a privately owned company headquartered in Gent, Belgium and with offices in Germany and France. The acquisition of SimCon, a value-added reseller for Brooks' simulation, scheduling, production analysis and dispatching software, unifies Brooks' sales efforts for the AutoSimulations products in Europe and strengthens Brooks' technical expertise and local support for these products. The deal is structured as a purchase of stock in SimCon N.V. in exchange for cash and shares of Brooks common stock totaling $2,600,000 plus additional payouts contingent upon certain business objectives being met.
In addition to its distribution business, SimCon is one of Europe's providers of simulation services in the semiconductor, airport, supply chain and material handling industries.
"SimCon has built a thriving consulting business and an extremely knowledgeable technical team," said Robert J. Therrien, president and chief executive officer, Brooks Automation, Inc. "Along with streamlining Brooks' sales channel in Europe for the AutoSimulations product line, the acquisition of SimCon provides Brooks with the technical resources to develop a consulting practice for providing scheduling and dispatching rule development and deployment world-wide. SimCon also has excellent resources in supply chain management and supply chain execution that Brooks can leverage for the benefit of its customers."
"For the past 12 years, SimCon has been dedicated to providing decision support solutions and consultancy services based on Brooks' AutoSimulations technology. Now that SimCon is part of Brooks, we will be able to align our efforts more closely with the Brooks sales, technical, service and support organizations. Closer collaboration between the SimCon and Brooks teams will give us more resources for enhancing, integrating and supporting the products and allow us to provide even more value to our customers," said Ben Mahy, president and chief executive officer, SimCon.
The acquisition further benefits Brooks' customers by making Static Capacity Modeler (SCM), developed by SimCon, a part of the Brooks product line. SCM is built on the AutoSched AP framework and is a companion product to AutoSched AP, which provides scheduling, planning and capacity analysis. SCM and AutoSched AP share the same data model, enabling companies to perform both static and dynamic analysis with the same data. By integrating these products, semiconductor companies will be able to replace the manual spreadsheets they now use for factory capacity analysis.
About Brooks Automation, Inc.
Brooks Automation, Inc. is the leading global supplier of OEM tool automation and factory management software for the semiconductor, data storage and flat panel display manufacturing industries. As an established market leader in hardware and software automation, Brooks continues to pioneer "Best-in-Class" technologies that outperform their competitors — from vacuum and atmospheric robots, cluster tool platforms and modules, ultra-clean mini-environments for isolating processing equipment and wafers — to factory and tool automation software and integration services. Both OEM and fab customers leverage Brooks Automation's products and environments. The Company has ISO 9001 certification, is headquartered in Chelmsford, MA and has direct operations in the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan. Further information is available at Brooks' web-site, www.brooks.com.
About SimCon
SimCon is a European provider of best-of-breed logistics decision support software solutions. SimCon's goal is to provide a complementary set of solutions to support its customers in their continuous improvement efforts toward excellence in supply-chain planning and execution. SimCon provides a product and service portfolio that allows customers to design, analyze, plan, operate and measure their supply chain environment. SimCon's product offerings include simulation, planning, scheduling, dispatching and production analysis tools; supply chain design, transportation planning and execution tools; and factory layout design, analysis and visualization tools. The company also provides a range of technical services including system integration, consulting, training and support. SimCon's web site is www.simcon.be.
"Safe Harbor" Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The foregoing discussion contains forward-looking statements related to future financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, risks relating to the benefits to Brooks Automation of purchasing SimCon, the continued success of SimCon in the marketplace, the ease of integrating SimCon into the Brooks business unit structure, the Company's dependence on the cyclical semiconductor industry, the Company's dependence on relatively few customers for a significant portion of its revenues, the Company's reliance on sales to OEM customers and the lengthy sales cycles of those customers, the ability of the Company to continue to successfully develop and market new products and product enhancements on a timely basis, the ability to integrate recent acquisitions into the Company, the highly competitive nature and rapid technological change that characterize the industries in which the Company competes, and other risks and uncertainties described in the Company's reports and registration statements filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. As a result, there can be no assurance that the Company's future results will not be materially different than those projected. The Company also operates in an industry sector where securities' values are highly volatile and may be influenced by economic and other factors beyond the Company's control. The forward-looking statements contained herein speak only of the Company's expectations as of the date of this press release. The Company expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release publicly any updates or revisions to any such statement to reflect any change in the Company's expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based.
Source: Brooks Automation, Inc.