France's Schneider Electric confirms $22.6 billion deal to buy US software firm PTC

By Sabrina Valle

Oct 5 (Reuters) - France's Schneider Electric said on Monday it had agreed to buy PTC in an all-cash deal valuing the US software company's equity at around $22.6 billion, confirming reports from Sunday.

The $205-per-share offer implies an enterprise value of $23.7 billion for Boston-based PTC and represents a 42.3% premium to its last closing share price.

The deal will be financed through a combination of equity and new debt issuance and is expected to be closed in the third quarter of 2027.

The acquisition would deepen the French engineering company's push into software acquisitions, having agreed to buy Cognite Holding, a privately held provider of AI software and industrial data, in June.

Schneider, once known primarily for industrial components like fuses and circuit breakers, now builds the backbone of data centres, supplying everything from cooling units and server racks to critical power distribution equipment.

The booming demand for data centres, particularly from the United States, is driving Schneider's earnings, offering a growing source of revenue helping offset weakness in some traditional electrical-equipment markets.

PTC, which provides software solutions for designing, manufacturing and servicing products across multiple sectors, has also benefited from growing demand for its AI-powered tools.

In July, Schneider Electric lifted its annual revenue forecast after reporting record first-half results, betting on strong demand for its core industrial software and artificial intelligence-powered tools.

(Reporting by Sabrina Valle in New York, Harishankar Manoj in Bengaluru and Lucie Barbier in Gdansk; Editing by Cynthia Osterman, Nick Zieminski and Milla Nissi-Prussak)