Itron To Scoop Up IoT Heavyweight Silver Spring Networks In $830M Deal

Energy and water analytics company Itron Monday said it plans to acquire Internet of Things networking company Silver Spring Networks in an $830 million deal.

Itron CEO Philip Mezey said in a statement that the acquisition will help bolster its deployments in smart cities and smart grids.

"The addition of Silver Spring brings more capabilities to our offerings and advances our strategy of delivering highly secure, value-generating solutions for the critical infrastructure within utilities, smart cities and the broader industrial IoT sector," said Mezey. " ’By converging our complementary, standards-based technologies, we will enhance customer efficiencies with solutions that optimize devices, network technologies, outcomes and analytics. This enables us to increase investment in new solutions and accelerate innovation for our combined customer base, covering more than 200 million people."

[Related: 10 Blockbuster Acquisitions That Helped Companies Get Ahead In IoT In 2017]

Silver Spring offers an array of networking products, including its Silver Spring IoT Edge Router, which is designed to allow cities and utilities to easily and securely integrate a range of devices and applications with their existing Silver Spring IoT networks, like smart streetlight and smart grid systems.

Meanwhile, Itron offers an array of technology and offerings to help customers connect and analyze data at the edge – including OpenWay Riva, which is a next-generation IoT offering for smart electricity, gas and water utilities and smarter cities.

Itron has a partner network that inclues companies such as Accenture and Capgemini, as well as distribution automation partners and analytics partners.

The Liberty Lake, Wash.-based company said on the channel front it hopes the acquisition will enable a larger partner ecosystem and that it is "committed to supporting multivendor offerings for the smart utility and smart city sectors."

’Combining Silver Spring’s entrepreneurial culture and proven capabilities with Itron’s operational strengths, depth of solutions and customer intimacy will result in a company that is well-positioned in the fast-growing critical infrastructure space," said Mezey. "We look forward to welcoming Silver Spring’s talented team of engineers and professionals to Itron and are confident that together, we are best equipped to provide industry-leading solutions that will deliver greater value to our customers.’

Over the first half of 2017, vendors have been aggressively building up their Internet of Things capabilities by acquiring analytics, connectivity and operational technology security startups. The year was led off by two blockbuster connected car acquisitions in March – Intel's $15 billion purchase of Mobileye and Samsung's $8 billion purchase of Harman.

’Joining forces with Itron will enable us to help more utilities and cities adopt the industrial Internet, improve their performance and reliability, and better position themselves for a connected future," said Silver Spring President and CEO Mike Bell. "This strong combination will address end-to-end solutions for our customers and will create immediate value for our stockholders; it will also provide new opportunities for our employees as part of a larger, global technology leader for the 'Internet of Important Things.'’

The deal is expected to close in late 2017 or early 2018, according to Itron.