Invensys

Invensys Limited

Company type	Subsidiary
Industry	Industrial Automation, Transportation, Controls
Founded	1999; 25 years ago (1999)
Defunct	2014
Fate	Merged to Schneider Electric
Headquarters	London, England
Key people	Jean-Pascal Tricoire (Chairman and CEO)
Products	Automation software computer-based automation hardware systems temperature controllers control systems
Revenue	£1,792 million (2013)[1]
Operating income	£43 million (2013)[1]
Net income	£128 million (2013)[1]
Number of employees	16,500 (2011)[2]
Parent	Schneider Electric

Invensys Limited was a multinational engineering and information technology company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. At its height, the company had offices in more than 50 countries and its products were sold in around 180 countries.^[3]

Invensys was formed in 1999 through the merger of BTR plc and Siebe plc.^[4] It was originally founded on 1 April 1920 as Siebe Gorman & Company Ltd and continued through various name changes registered at Companies House from that date. Invensys lines of business were grouped into four segments: Software, Industrial Automation, Energy Controls and Appliance. Its brands included Avantis, Eurotherm, Foxboro, IMServ, InFusion, Triconex, SimSci, Skelta, Wonderware, Drayton, Eberle, Eliwell.

Less than three years after its establishment, Invensys was in financial hardship, in part due to having overpaid for acquisitions such as the Baan Corporation at the height of the dotcom bubble and having accumulated a heavy debt burden. Through several divestments and a major restructuring, the company's fiscal situation had improved by 2005, allowing the pace of acquisitions to pick up. Considerable business was being obtained by its various products in the railway sector, which it opted to align under the Invensys Rail brand. Invensys Rail was ultimately sold to the German engineering conglomerate Siemens in exchange for £1.7 billion in May 2013.

Between 2011 and early 2012, the company's share price fell by nearly 50%, which was attributed to a £40 million expense from the delayed production of control and safety systems for eight Chinese nuclear reactors. In response, Invensys began openingly seeking to be acquired by a larger company, approaching the American industrial automation company Emerson Electric without any bid being made. During January 2014, Invensys was taken over by the French multinational Schneider Electric for a total consideration of $5.5 billion. Schneider opted to fully integrate the company and phased out the "Invensys" brand in favour of its own.