EHS M&A Activity, the State of Green, and Leveraging the IIoT [Roundup]

Some contrasting this week in terms of mergers and acquisitions. While the industrial space, particularly within automation, has seen a marked decline in M&A activity in Q1 of 2015 compared to Q4 of 2014--both in number of transactions and market value. While this may point to a trend moving forward in this market sector, there was news this week of a notable EHS software acquisition--with Enviance acquiring Remedy Interactive. More details below in the round-up, along with opinions on the state of green business and what's needed to enable the Industrial Internet of Things to push forward the next industrial revolution.

What's the Current State of 'Green' Business?

GreenBiz held its annual GreenBiz Forum recently in Phoenix, Arizona, with chariman and executive editor Joel Makower meeting with Trucost Plc CEO Richard Mattison, and GreenBiz VP and senior analyst John Davies to discuss the state of sustainability efforts in business. Among the points touched upon, one of the most important focus areas was how to report effectively and how to better translate sustainability to both executives and investors. "I would say reporting for reporting's sake clearly is a waste of time," said Mattison, "the investors that I've spoken to would say that reporting in a way that translates to them how you're reducing risk, creating more opportunities, and avoiding costs in the future that your competition might face will attract capital."

The event also focused on the role and incorporation of risk in sustainability initiatives, and the importance of framing sustainability goals within the context of the company's bottom line. Watch the forum video at the GreenBiz site...

EHS Provider Enviance Acquires Remedy Interactive

This past week had some market activity in the Environment, Health & Safety (EHS) space as Enviance, a provider of Cloud-based EHS management software announced its pending acqusition of Remedy Interactive, a Sausalito, California based EHS company focused on enterprise-level, Cloud-based ergonomic and safety management software solutions to global companies across diverse industries such as oil & gas, utilities, manufacturing, and entertainment.

The acquisition features many complementary aspects, and their portfolio of offerings will complete a suite of products focused on ergonomic, safety, regulatory compliance, operational and risk management applications to broaded market share within the EHS space.

"Bringing Remedy Interactive into the fold enables Enviance to offer new and existing clients a broader suite of offering new and existing clients a broader suite of offerings to meet their rapidly evolving heath and safety needs," said David Muse, CEO of Enviance. View full announcement here...

Industrial Mergers on the Decline in Early 2015

In contrast to the above story, within the industrial space, mergers and acqusitions in the first quarter of 2015 have decreased since 2014 according Mergermarket. The firm's Industrial Trends Report recorded 374 deals totaling $28.3 billion in the first three months of the year, a decline of nearly 18% in number of transactions and more than 44% reduction in the value of those deals. Last year's 1,896 mergers and acquisitions totaled $157 billion in value, and was the most active year since 2007. Other notable statistics from the report?

• Transactions fell particularly in the automation and electronics categories -- with deal value decreasing by 75% over 2014 Q4 activity.
• Though Europe holds the largest share of the automation sector of the industrial market, European deals totaled 43% of the year's activity.
• Though overall transactional activity is down, certain sectors are on the rise
• While last year saw six deals in the wind energy sector totaling $48 million, there have already been four such deals in Q1 2015, worth more than $4 billion.

Full post at Manufacturing.net...

Smart Connected Operations: Capturing the Business Value of the Industrial Internet of Things

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been a hot topic for some time now. Though there has no doubt been an increase in buzz around the term, in parallel, there have been real advancements in developing the platforms, sensors, software applications, and other technology that is trending toward a future vision of Smart Connected Operations -- cyberphysical systems to revolutionize how businesses overcome perennial challenges like responding to customer demands, improving quality, and handling disparate systems and data sources. On Tuesday, May 19 at 1:00 pm EDT, LNS Research President and Principal Analyst Matthew Littlefield will present benchmark data from more than 500 industrial executives on the Industrial IoT, as well as early use cases of IoT and what's needed to advance the market forward past the very early adopter phase. The event is free and is intended to help industrial executives better understand the current state of the Industrial IoT, and give actionable recommendations to advance their IIoT investment/capabilities, regardless of what stage of the journey corresponds to their organizational situation. Click below to register and reserver your spot.