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European commission approves UTc acquisition of raytheon
The European Commission has given its approval to the proposed acquisition of defence contractor and arms manufacturer Raytheon by United Technologies Corporation (UTC). The transaction would combine UTC’s aerospace businesses and Raytheon’s defence business. Both companies are worldwide suppliers of military systems to aircraft and guided munitions manufacturers, as well as armed forces.
Following the proposal of the acquisition, the Commission began investigating what the impact of the deal would be. There were initial concerns that the transaction would have reduced competition in the markets for airborne radios and military GPS receivers.
The results of the Commission’s investigation found that, with respect to military airborne radios, UTC and Raytheon are two major suppliers of these systems worldwide and, in particular, the only two real options currently available to US military aircraft manufacturers. EEA armed forces procure a variety of military aircraft from US manufacturers, therefore the Commission was concerned that the concentration would result in harm to EEA armed forces, including higher prices.
Concerning military GPS receivers, UTC and Raytheon are two of the very few suppliers of this core military GPS technology worldwide, including in the EEA, which in turn constitutes a critical input for a broad range of military systems. Therefore, the merged entity would have faced very limited competition from alternative suppliers following the transaction.
The conclusion that the Commission reached was that vertical links between the two defence giants did not harm competition because the resulting merged entity would have neither the incentive nor the ability to restrict competitors’ access to essential input or a customer base.
The investigation also looked at whether the proposed merged entity would have the ability to shut out competitors through the use of practices such as bundling, but found that there would be no incentive to do so, and nor would the company have the ability.
The two defence companies, in a bid to allay the Commission’s concerns offered to divest UTC’s entire military GPS receiver and anti-jamming business, which is based in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Iowa, United States, as well as Raytheon’s entire military airborne radios business, based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, United States.
The intention on the part of UTC and Raytheon is to sell the divested businesses to BAE Systems, removing the overlap.
The Commission’s final approval is still dependent on the two defence companies fulfilling these commitments.
The investigation saw the European Commission work closely with the Department of Justice in the US, where the companies are both headquartered, as well as Canada’s Competition Bureau. visit: www.rtx.com
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EC Pledge: Over €7.4 Billion Raised In Funds For Vaccines
The recent pledge announced by the European Commission to begin a globally coordinated response to Covid-19 has already raised €7.4 billion of its €7.5 billion target in just 24 hours since its launch. The initiative was officially launched yesterday by a joint effort from the European Commission and an alliance with various corporate giants who acted as signatories and investors in the scheme.
The pledge was announced last week, at the onset of World Immunisation Week 2020. The ultimate aim is to ensure the collaborative development and universal deployment of diagnostics, treatments and eventual production of vaccines against coronavirus.
EC president, Ursula von der Leyen said: “Today the world showed extraordinary unity for the common good. Governments and global health organisations joined forces against coronavirus. With such commitment, we are on track for developing, producing and deploying a vaccine for all.
The pledging event was co-convened by the European Union, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Norway, Spain and the UK. It formed as a result of a call to action by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and other such health firms to fund a global fight in curbing the spread and ultimately dealing with, the pandemic.
The EC has announced the initial pledge goal of €7.5 billion will not be enough to ensure the global distribution of Covid-19 health technologies. As a result, they will be continuing to raise funds past the initial goal to allow them to deal with the significant production and distribution costs needed.
The EC has also announced that it will be committing €1 billion in grants and €400 million in guarantees on loans in the reprioritisation of various companies and technologies to fully deal with coronavirus. These grants will be going to are Horizon 2020, RescEU and the Emergency Support Instrument, as well as various external instruments.
A further €100 million will be donated to the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and €158 million will be going to the World Health Organization.
Donors are invited to continue pledging to the Coronavirus Global Response and can choose which area to donate to – Test, Treat or Prevent – with a further option to donate the horizontal workstream of the Response itself helping global health systems deal with the pandemic.
The EC has further announced its intention to release a breakdown of the funds, so donors and the public can view how the funds will be funnelled into each area.
mitsubishi electric acquires swedish hvac Distributor aQs
Japan’s Mitsubishi Electric has announced that its Amsterdam-based subsidiary in Europe has acquired all shares in Swedish comfort, process and IT cooling and heat pump distributor, AQS Produkter AB. In a press release, the Japanese firm described the Swedish market as having “promising prospects”.
AQS has been selling commercial cooling and heat pump products for 35 years and, as such, the company and its employees already possess strong technical capabilities and know-how.
Prior to the acquisition, Mitsubishi Electric has been selling mainly residential and light commercial products in Sweden through its Scandinavian branch. AQS has been the primary distributor Mitsubishi commercial cooling and heat pump products in the region.
“We welcome AQS to the Mitsubishi Electric family. This is an exciting opportunity for us to strengthen and expand our offering on the Swedish market. The addition will complement our existing portfolio and enable us to cater even better for the high market demand for innovative and energy saving chiller technology,” said Itaru Watanabe, Branch President of Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V (Scandinavia).
Residential air conditioners and hot-water heat pumps have been gaining popularity in Sweden, where people are striving to combat global warming by saving energy. Also, chillers are being increasingly adopted for commercial cooling systems in the Swedish market. In addition, the data centre expansion in Sweden has significantly increased the market for IT cooling.
Through the acquisition of AQS, Mitsubishi Electric said it aims to strengthen its commercial business in Sweden and also to strengthen total solutions capabilities of Mitsubishi Electric Europe by taking advantage of its new partner’s know-how. visit: www.aqsprodukter.se
Yokogawa Acquires Danish AI Firm Grazper Technologies
Japan’s Yokogawa Electric Corp has announced the acquisition of Denmark’s Grazper Technologies, a company which develops advanced artificial intelligence for image analysis. The Japanese firm says it will leverage these AI technologies within its existing businesses to develop new industrial solutions.
Recent advances in deep learning and related technologies have enabled the practical application of AI in industry, and it is expected that as image identification and data forecasting accuracy continue to improve, the use of AI will only expand further. In particular, by improving the recognition accuracy for moving imagery, it becomes possible to observe the overall environment and context of the whole image, opening up new applications in the security field and for image analysis and robot operations on production lines.
Founded in 2015, Grazper possesses advanced AI-based technologies for image analysis, including a solution that allows AI software to run efficiently on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), a type of integrated circuit. The software employs image recognition methodologies that have been theorised using algorithms and 3D modelling, and it can be operated with limited computing resources. visit: www.yokogawa.com
