KUKA AG Midea Group $5,110.0 In a complex stock play over the course of many months, Chinese consumer products manufacturer Midea Group acquired over 94% of the outstanding and privately held shares of KUKA AG, a Germany-based robot manufacturers and one of the Big Four of international robot makers. The approval process involved negotiations with the German and US governments, the selling off of KUKA Aero (which is involved in sensitive aerospace technologies) to AIT (see below), and an agreement regarding jobs and plants in Germany which will be protected until the end of 2023. Also Midea agreed not to pursue a domination agreement or de-listing of KUKA’s shares.

Dematic Kion Group 2,100.0 The Kion Group, with funding from their Chinese partner, acquired Dematic Corp. for $2.1 billion. Kion’s biggest single shareholder is Chinese diesel-engine maker Weichai Power with a 38.3% stake. Kion has been on a tear acquiring all sorts of companies in the logistics sphere: Egemin, Linde, Retrotech and now Dematic.

Intelligrated Honeywell 1,500.0 Honeywell's material handling solutions are somewhat old school, hence their need to strategically acquire newer technology. Intelligrated has been a successful integrator of mobile and stationary robotic solutions and systems for 20+ years for manufacturing, warehousing and distribution material handling and automated storage and retrieval. In recent years the company has posted double-digit year-over-year growth. Intelligrated brings a large IP portfolio of warehouse automation, order fulfillment and software solutions and has an extensive presence in North American e-commerce and the retail, and food and beverage markets.

Affymetrix ThermoFisher 1,300.0 ThermoFisher Scientific acquired Affymetrix for $1.3 billion. Adding Affymetrix's products will help ThermoFisher expand its array of lab equipment and robots into biosciences and genetic analysis workflows.

InvenSense TDK Corp 1,300.0 TDK Corporation acquired InvenSense, Inc. for $1.3 billion. InvenSense provides motion sensors, and is known for its six- and nine-axis motion sensors, which are used in some advanced consumer products and applications. Recently it has added inertial, environmental, microphone, and ultrasonic sensors to its product line.

KraussMaffei Automation ChemChina 1,000.0 ChemChina and a group of other investors including Chinese state funds, acquired Germany’s KraussMaffei Automation, an industrial robot integrator and plastics, carbon fiber, and rubber processor, for $1 billion.

Arcam AB GE 800.0 Arcam AB, based in Mölndal, Sweden, was acquired by GE. Arcam invented an electron beam melting machine for metal-based additive manufacturing, and also produces advanced metal powders. Its customers are in the aerospace and healthcare industries. Arcam generated $68 million in revenues in 2015 with approximately 285 employees.

E2V Teledyne Technologies 780.0 Teledyne Technologies, which specializes in deepwater gas and oil exploration and production, oceanographic research, air and water quality environmental monitoring, electronics design and development, factory automation and medical imaging, acquired British imaging sensor maker E2V Technologies in an all cash $780 million transaction. E2V's imaging devices, machine vision cameras for sensitive, high speed inspection processes, industrial processing systems, and other sensors, enable a range of industrial robotic and automation systems to work more efficiently and for space science and astronomy applications.

Otto Motors Uber 680.0 Otto Motors, a San Francisco startup developing self-driving truck system kits, was acquired by Uber for $680 million. The deal was worth about 0.9% of Uber. Also part of the deal, Otto gets 20% of any trucking business profits they end up creating. Anthony Levandowski, a former Google engineer and one of Otto’s founders, will take charge of Uber’s self-driving car operations as well as continuing to run Otto’s trucking business.

Cruise Automation General Motors 600.0 General Motors acquired Cruise Automation, a startup that was developing autopilot systems for existing cars, for an undisclosed sum but, according to Fortune magazine, a figure “north of $1 billion.” This figure was later modified to $600 million. GM has stated their goal of creating the industry’s biggest driverless-vehicle fleet which is why GM paid such a steep purchase price for Cruise, invested $500 million into Lyft, and another $25 million to acquire the employees and technology left over from Sidecar, a ride-sharing service that shut down last December. Certainly these acquisitions are both a talent and a technology grab to help GM facilitate their fleet-vehicle goal.

SLM Solutions Group GE 600.0 SLM Solutions Group, based in Lübeck, Germany, produces laser machines for metal-based 3D additive manufacturing with customers in the aerospace, energy, healthcare, and automotive industries. SLM generated $74 million in revenues in 2015 with 260 employees.

Movidius Intel 400.0 Intel acquired Irish Movidius, a maker of image-processor chips for drones and virtual reality for $400 million. Movidius’ chips help drones and smartphones recognize faces and read signs without needing to stream to the cloud and wait for a response.

Voith GmbH Triton Partners 342.0 Voith GmbH, a family-owned German group of industrial and engineering companies, has sold 80% of its industrial services unit to buyout group Triton Partners for $342 million to free up capital for planned investments. Voith also had a 25.1% share of Kuka's stock which it sold to Midea. According to Forbes, Voith ranks 200th in global family-owned businesses with revenue of $7.5 bn and 43,000 employees.

Paslin Wanfeng 302.0 Paslin, a Warren, MI integrator of welding robots and manufacturer of automation tooling, was acquired by Chinese company Wanfeng Technology Group for $302 million. Paslin has developed and sold assembly and welding robot application systems 1937. Wanfeng, founded in 1994, has businesses in such fields as auto parts manufacturing, robots and intelligent equipment, magnesium alloy and financial investments, with annual sales of $3 billion.

Cabinplant A/S CTB 300.0 Cabinplant A/S, a Danish integrator of food processing equipment including a sardine packing robot cell, sold 80% of their shares to CTB, a Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet) company that designs, manufactures and markets ag, dairy and poultry processing equipment. Cabinplant employs 300 people and has representatives in more than 30 countries worldwide. Based on 2015 sales of $43M (from their annual report), and presuming a 10X revenue, it seems likely the selling price was in the range of $200M to $400M.

Liquid Robotics Boeing 300.0 Liquid Robotics sold their company to Boeing's Autonomous Systems for Defense, Space & Security division. Liquid Robotics' Wave Gliders have traveled over 1.2 million nautical miles for a variety of partners and clients and an even greater number of commercial, defense and scientific applications. Although press releases from both companies didn’t have any financial details, a flurry of leaks and rumors suggest that Boeing paid $300 million for LR.

Aesynt Omnicell 275.0 Aesynt, a Pennsylvania company that produces and distributes hospital pharmacy dispensing robot systems, was acquired by Omnicell, a Silicon Valley medical device provider of advanced automation enabling health care facilities to acquire, manage, dispense, and deliver medications and supplies, for $275 million. In 2015 Omnicell acquired MTS Medication Technologies and MACH4 Automation, both manufacturing and marketing robotic pharmacy dispensing systems.

Point Grey Research FLIR Systems 253.0 FLIR Systems, a big vision systems provider, acquired Point Grey Research, a developer of machine vision cameras for use in industrial, retail, scientific, traffic, mapping, and other advanced imaging applications, for approximately $253 million in cash.

Turi Apple 200.0 Apple acquired Turi, a Seattle-based developer of a multi-purpose AI machine learning platform, for $200 million.

Westfalia Group Horizon Global 186.0 DPE Deutsche Private Equity sold Westfalia Group, a German maker of towing equipment and integrator of robotic warehousing solutions, to Horizon Global Corp. for around $186 million including assumed debt. Westfalia, specializing in warehouse automation, designs, integrates and installs automated storage solutions for manufacturers and distributors in both conventional existing spaces and new-build facilities.

Gimatic Agic Capital 150.0 Gimatic, an Italian gripper maker, was acquired by European-Asian equity fund Agic Capital for an undisclosed sum estimated by the Financial Times to be between $112-$169 million. Agic Capital was a participant in the purchase of Germany's KraussMaffei Group for $1 billion (see above).

Ecoclean Group Shenyang Blue Silver Group 134.0 Shenyang Blue Silver Group (SBS Group), China, acquired 85% of the Ecoclean Group within the Dürr Group for around $134 million. The Ecoclean Group has annual sales of $224 million, 850 employees and 10 sites in 8 countries, and provides cleaning and surface processing systems – some of which are robotic – for industrial part manufacturers, mainly in the auto industry. Dürr is a provider of painting, sealing and handling robots for the global auto industry. Shenyang Blue Silver has 700 employees and $224 million in annual sales. One of their activities is as an integrator of industrial robots for material handling.

Prox Dynamics FLIR Systems 134.0 Prox Dynamics, an Oslo, Norway, developer, manufacturer, and distributor of aerial sensors and UAS that are small and light for covert surveillance systems, was acquired by FLIR Systems for $134 million.

Medtech Zimmer Biomet 132.0 Zimmer Biomet has entered the growing surgical robotics field with the purchase of France’s Medtech for an estimated $132 million. According to an SEC filing, Zimmer Biomet agreed to buy 1.4 million shares from founder Bertin Nahum and other stockholders at a price of $55 per share, as well as all outstanding convertible bonds and warrants previously issued by Medtech to private equity firm Ally Bridge Group. Medtech is a developer of robotic surgical platforms and the ROSA surgical robot.

Hansen Medical Auris Surgical Robotics 80.0 Hansen Medical and Auris Surgical Robotics, both surgical robot providers, agreed to a merger whereby Auris acquired Hansen for $80 million. In addition, certain significant stockholders of Hansen Medical agreed to invest approximately $49 million into Auris upon the closing.

RoboRobo Shengtong Printing 62.0 RoboRobo, a Korean educational robotics kit and course provider startup, was acquired by Shenzhen-based Shengtong Printing for $62 million in cash and stock. RoboRobo was set up in 2012 in Beijing as the general agent in China for South-Korean based educational robot courses. Now, it operates 16 schools in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Nanjing, and other cities.

iRobot Defense Endeavor Robotics 45.0 iRobot sold off it's Defense Division for $45 million to Arlington Capital Partners, a government regulated sectors and verticals VC who set up Endeavor Robotics. The new standalone company will focus entirely on the needs of defense, public safety and security. Existing iRobot management and staff have moved over to the new company which will remain in Bedford, MA.

Retrotech Egemin Automation 40.0 Retrotech was acquired by the Kion Group via it’s Egemin Automation subsidiary, for $40 million. Retrotech is a NY-based material handling integrator employing 140 people with annual sales of ~$70 million in 2015. Note that Kion acquired Egemin in 2015 for ~$82 million.

Jorgensen Engineering Xano 35.0 Jorgensen Engineering, an Odense, Denmark integrator, has sold to Zano, a Swedish holding company (not to be confused with UK Torquing Group's Zano, which recently failed) for $35 million. Jorgensen had annual sales of $40 million. Jorgensen will be folded into Zano’s Industrial Solutions unit which supplies customer-specific automation solutions for the food and medical technology industries, in addition to packaging machines for beverage and other food packaging.

Interactive Motion Technologies Bionik Labs 23.6 Bionik Labs, a Canadian provider of rehab solutions for individuals with neurological disorders, acquired all of the outstanding shares, assets and liabilities of Interactive Motion Technologies, a Watertown, MA provider of upper extremity rehab robotics for $23.65 million.