GE Fanuc Automation North America, Inc. announced that it has completed its acquisition of Intellution, Inc., formerly a division of Emerson Process Management, an Emerson (NYSE: EMR) business. Intellution is a leading supplier of industrial automation software, with more than 185,000 installations around the world.

The business, which will become known as GE Fanuc Intellution, is based in Foxborough, Mass., and will operate as an integral part of the GE Fanuc Global Solutions Business. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.  

Using award-winning technology, Intellution provides an industry-standard software platform that collects, distributes, controls and visually presents information from the plant floor throughout the enterprise, supplying customers with scalable solutions that deliver increased productivity and return on investment (ROI). Intellution also offers best-in-class global customer care for software technology support.   

"Bringing Intellution into the GE Fanuc family supports GE's ability to deliver world-class solutions that improve quality, reduce cycle times, increase profitability, and facilitate collaboration in the supply chain to drive customer competitive advantage,"said Charlene Begley, president and CEO of GE Fanuc. "The Intellution acquisition is part of GE's global growth strategy and combines technologies that increase benefits to customers around the world. The worldwide manufacturing community can anticipate exciting, new disruptive technologies, which will change and improve the way we do business."

ARC Advisory Group Principal Analyst John Blanchard said, "Intellution is an excellent complement to GE because it brings a large installed base and extensive knowledge in the highly regulated batch process industries that include food, beverage, pharmaceutical, and fine chemicals. Intellution's strong suite of manufacturing intelligence products are also ideal for small-to medium-sized companies in these industries, while their knowledge of 21 CFR Part 11 will help in the pharmaceutical industry."

"It's a good buy for GE Fanuc and for Intellution's customers,"said Bill Swanton, vice president with AMR Research (The Alert on Manufacturing, October 24, 2002). "There are opportunities for large, global production system rollouts.  User companies will have an unprecedented opportunity to buy whole factory management systems from large, multibillion-dollar vendors with global delivery capabilities."