Siemens AG—and that’s Siemens Siemens, not Siemens Healthineers—is expanding its industrial software business further into the life sciences, with a $5.1 billion plan to acquire digital R&D platform developer Dotmatics.
The German conglomerate said the deal would not only add to its work in artificial intelligence and digital twins but would also help it provide customers with a more seamless connection between research and manufacturing through its product life cycle management portfolio.
“Artificial Intelligence has emerged as a transformative force across various industries, and its application in Life Sciences is becoming increasingly important,” Siemens President and CEO Roland Busch said in a statement. “The Dotmatics acquisition is part of our ONE Tech Company growth program, enhancing our leading position in industrial software and helping our customers to innovate even faster.”
Boston-based Dotmatics and its 800-plus employees boast multiple applications—including automated data ingestion from lab instruments as well as predictive AI software—which they say are used by more than 2 million scientists among 14,000 customers worldwide.
Last October, the company rolled out a platform for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies and proteins as it sets its sights on a multimodal suite that will span antibody-drug conjugates, CRISPR-based treatments, CAR-T cell therapies and siRNA drugs, as well as vaccines.
“Following an exciting journey with Insight Partners, where Dotmatics achieved remarkable growth and portfolio expansion, we are thrilled to announce our new chapter with Siemens,” said Dotmatics CEO Thomas Swalla. “Combining our next-generation scientific intelligence platform and industry-leading scientific applications together with Siemens' Digital Twin and AI capabilities, we’ll drive a new wave of innovation in life sciences R&D.”
Siemens estimates that the acquisition of Dotmatics will add about $11 billion to its total addressable market goals. Chief Financial Officer Ralf Thomas said the deal will be financed in part by the sale of shares of other companies—including Siemens Healthineers—which it spun out in 2017 while maintaining a majority stake.
The Siemens mothership raised about 1.45 billion euros, or about $1.5 billion, in February by selling about 2% of its shares in Siemens Healthineers, retaining 73% control of the medtech company.