topic What do you think about an Emerson takeover? in BreakPoint

What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

pallen — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 14:35:56 GMT

First time this morning I'm hearing about Emerson Electric wanting to buy NI.

I'm still informing myself on the situation. But I'm curious what other LabVIEW developers think of the situation.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

crossrulz — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 15:42:50 GMT

I'm currently of the opinion that it will not happen. Either way, I'm not worried about it. I have enough other drama happening in my life.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Mads — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:05:18 GMT

It makes me worry even more about the future of LabVIEW. We rely on LabVIEW and sbRIOs and with a new owner I am afraid they could be axed of left to dwindle.

If Emerson wanted to invest in LabVIEW and RnD that would be great, but from what I can tell they mainly want to squeeze as much profit out of NI as possible and (with a short-term view) that seems to mean cutting spending on RnD (They have criticized NI for spending too much on RnD. They could of course be right in that NI is not getting enough out of their investment, the NXG project e.g. looked bad from the get go and should have been handled better, but until proven wrong I suspect better project management is not what they are planning for...).

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Mads — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 14:32:42 GMT

No news for quite some time about this...or have you seen anything?

Perhaps everyone held their breath and passed out?😬

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

pallen — Mon, 27 Feb 2023 14:49:49 GMT

It doesn't seem that much has changed.

From what I read, Emerson is still pursuing the purchase.

https://www.printedelectronicsnow.com/contents/view_breaking-news/2023-02-23/emerson-provides-an-update-on-all-cash-proposal-to-acquire-national-instruments/

Lots of speculation. But not sure where things are going.

Hmm....seems kinda familiar lately.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

mantoles — Tue, 07 Mar 2023 00:46:21 GMT

Emerson traditionally buys companies and does not change them. they become part of their portfolio. they see an opportunity to make the business more profitable. I don't expect much change if any for the better except for some executives that may have to go. I also don't expect product offerings to change but over time they will grow to meet Emerson's growth plans

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

_TestMan_ — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 17:55:00 GMT

Emerson probably is better option for us NI users than some third party financial company.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Mads — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 18:46:55 GMT

My experience is that when Emerson buys a company they do change them; they (like many others) look for ways to reduce costs by outsourcing/relocate production e.g. and remove parts of the portfolio that they do not see as profitable enough. The risk with this is that they typically do not know enough about the niches of that business and the internals of the company (product and people-inter-dependencies, culture etc.) to make the right decisions.

In one case they relocated production of highly specialized components to low-cost alternatives with little know-how from the target business, and hurt their relationship with customers that expected continuity and higher quality. In such turbulent processes you typically also lose key personnel and talent (no way back...).

Heck, even NI does not seem to fully recognize how fundamental LabVIEW, and the relationship they used to have with their customers (not relying on distributors) is to their own success. Shifting focus towards what on paper/isolated looks like the more profitable parts of their business they might still have success and be happy, but unwittingly lose what could have become much greater.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Mads — Wed, 08 Mar 2023 19:41:27 GMT

https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/national-instruments-picks-fortive-keysight-challengers-emersons-bid-sources-2023-03-03/

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Intaris — Thu, 09 Mar 2023 09:55:21 GMT

Ugh, Keysight?

Aren't they more likely to can LabVIEW entirely in favour of their own software?

Really tangential and weird story: I actually played a round of golf with former Agilent CEO (Agilent and Keysight are both spin-offs of the old HP) Bill Sullivan, and his mood got all cranky as soon as I mentioned LabVIEW. There's still animosity towards NI and LabVIEW in particular from way back. I don't have faith that Keysight are particularly interested in nurturing LabVIEW at all.

But this is completely my own personal opinion based on my own personal interactions I have had.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

TiTou — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 14:44:04 GMT

it's a done deal : https://investor.ni.com/news-releases/news-release-details/emerson-advance-global-automation-leadership-through-acquisition

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

pallen — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:01:53 GMT

Well...I guess we just wait to see what happens.

Hopefully this works out to be a positive for fellow LabVIEW devs.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

TiTou — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:15:03 GMT

One thing that Emerson made clear is that they think NI has been spending too much on R&D

That said, I absolutely don't know what to expect nor how fast things will move.

Well...

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Hooovahh — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 17:45:56 GMT

@TiTou wrote:

it's a done deal : https://investor.ni.com/news-releases/news-release-details/emerson-advance-global-automation-leadership-through-acquisition

Ah yes, I'm sure this is all part of NI's 100 year plan. Also could they find worst logo to use? Lots of JPG artifacts, and are quite stretched.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

Freelion8 — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 05:34:38 GMT

Now NI is acquired by Emerson. This could be one of the best things ever happened to LabVIEW developers since we will have more visibility and wider range of customers/users. LabVIEW is the centerpiece of NI and Emerson has no option but invest more into LabVIEW because they know that it is one of the most capable Control and Automation software and hardware in the global markets.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

crossrulz — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 12:23:00 GMT

@Freelion8 wrote:

Now NI is acquired by Emerson.

Not quite. There is an agreement for the acquisition. The official acquisition is a year out.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

PaulG. — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 13:25:23 GMT

Anything can happen in a year.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

crossrulz — Wed, 19 Apr 2023 15:46:27 GMT

@crossrulz wrote:

@Freelion8 wrote:

Now NI is acquired by Emerson.

Not quite. There is an agreement for the acquisition. The official acquisition is a year out.

Adding some context here. The following is from this article:

"The transaction is expected to close in the first half of Emerson's fiscal 2024, subject to the completion of customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals and approval by NI shareholders."

Emerson's fiscal year starts beginning of October.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

TiTou — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 12:43:49 GMT

@Freelion8 a écrit :

Now NI is acquired by Emerson. This could be one of the best things ever happened to LabVIEW developers since we will have more visibility and wider range of customers/users. LabVIEW is the centerpiece of NI and Emerson has no option but invest more into LabVIEW because they know that it is one of the most capable Control and Automation software and hardware in the global markets.

Interesting point of view.

Have you seen/heard/read anything so support this point of view?

Most comments I've seen so far about Emerson's takeover were rather pessimistic - to day the least - for the future of LabVIEW.

Re: What do you think about an Emerson takeover?

crossrulz — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 13:02:55 GMT

@TiTou wrote:
Most comments I've seen so far about Emerson's takeover were rather pessimistic - to day the least - for the future of LabVIEW.

I am of the opinion that this will cause minimal changes to NI, at least in the short term. It takes a long time to change a company, especially one as large as NI. It will takes years before we, the customers, will actually notice anything.