ABB spends $ 190 million for AMR provider ASTI Mobile Robotics

With the release of its financial results for the third quarter of 2021, we now know how much ABB paid to acquire ASTI Mobile Robotics. ABB spent $ 190 million, including $ 7 million in cash, in July 2021 to acquire the Spanish developer of autonomous mobile robots (AMR).

ABB ASTI Side 1 Founded in 1982, ASTI is headquartered in Burgos, Spain, and employs more than 300 people in Spain, France and Germany. It was majority owned by Verónica Pascual Boé, who was also CEO. ASTI Headquarters will become ABB's AMR Business Headquarters, led by Pascual Boé, with core functions including R&D, Engineering, Product and Project Value Chain, continuing at the ASTI facilities.

ABB said the acquisition would expand its family of products to AMRs and beyond industrial and collaborative robotic arms. ASTI solutions are currently selling for a revenue of $ 50 million per year with an annual growth rate of 30%. With ABB's network of sales and partners, ASTI will now expand its reach from 20 companies to 53 companies worldwide, including China.

Sami Atiya, CEO of ABB Robotics, told The Robot Report Podcast that more and more ABB customers have started asking questions about mobile robots. Buying ASTI, rather than developing its own solutions, gives ABB a fast and respected way to diversify its robotics portfolio to deliver more value to new and existing customers. Atiya and Pascual Boé recently discussed the deal on The Robot Report Podcast. You can listen to this episode of the show at the end of this article.

ASTI is one of four AMR companies to be acquired from May 2021. The other transactions were:

JASCI Software acquired NextShift Robotics in May for an undisclosed amount
Zebra Technologies paid $ 290 million for Fetch Robotics in July
Locus Robotics bought Waypoint Robotics for an undisclosed amount in September

The most expensive recent memory acquisition by AMR is Shopify's purchase of 6 River Systems for $ 450 million in 2019. Shopify launched its Fulfillment Network service in June 2019, which it says will speed up delivery times and reduce the cost of shipping for your customers. 6 River Systems' order processing software and robotic technology have been integrated to increase the speed and efficiency of these warehouses.

Regarding the performance of ABB's discrete automation and robotics division in the third quarter, the company said orders increased 30% to $ 935 million. ABB said revenue stood at $ 813 million with growth limited to 1%, and said things had been "negatively affected by component shortages and the shrinking automotive systems business."