Toshiba is buying Swiss energy management equipment supplier Landis+Gyr AG in a deal worth US$2.3 billion (around £1.4bn).
Toshiba claims the deal will enhance the scope of its Smart Grid and Smart Community businesses 'and position the company as a global competitor with world-class capabilities'.

Projects to establish Smart Grids are being promoted around the world in a bid to achieve an environmentally friendly infrastructure essential for a low carbon society and sustained economic growth.

The next decade will see the Smart Grid market grow to 5.8 trillion yen (around £43.8 billion), six times today's level.

Established in 1896, and now with over 8,000 utility customers globally, Landis+Gyr is said to have pioneered the development of leading-edge smart metering, networking and service products to meet the needs of the utilities industry. Its business operations now extend to 30 countries and regions across five continents.

Landis+Gyr provides smart meter solutions, from advanced interactive communication technologies to various applications and services based on data collected from the meters.

'The combination of Landis+Gyr's advanced smart metering technologies and services, plus its extensive customer base, with Toshiba's comprehensive expertise in energy management for utility companies and the corporate (buildings) and consumer (homes) sectors, will allow Toshiba to provide customers with sophisticated one-stop solutions that offer communities optimum power monitoring and management, plus effective applications and services based on cloud computing technologies,' a Toshiba statement said.

Upon completion of the acquisition, Toshiba will promote operational and technological synergies and further growth in its Smart Grid and Smart Community businesses, toward achieving net sales of 700 billion yen (£5.3bn) in fiscal year 2015, against current annual sales of 300 billion yen (£2.25bn).
Toshiba established a dedicated Smart Community Division to promote its Smart Community business in October 2010.

On 1 April, 2011, Toshiba established a new in-house company, the Social Infrastructure Systems Company, which reinforces Toshiba's ability to offer integrated solutions across power transmission and distribution, a broad range of social infrastructure, including railway systems, automotive systems and rechargeable batteries, and to support the Smart
Landis+Gyr will remain a standalone company and will aim to expand orders received in Europe, the US, China, India and Brazil.