Emerson to Acquire Avocent Data Center Mgt.

Emerson agreed to acquire Avocent, a leading supplier of KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switches and consoles, in an all-cash tender offer of $25 per share, or approximately $1.2 billion. Companies expect the deal to close around January 1, 2010.


Avocent blends hardware, software and embedded technologies in a unified platform that simplifies monitoring, managing and problem solving in data centers. The products allow a network manager to control vast numbers of servers from a single console. The company is headquartered in Huntsville, Alabama. It recorded sales in 2008 of $657 million. Nearly 50 percent of Avocent's 2008 revenues came from outside the United States.


Emerson said the deal expands its set of data center portfolio, which already includes power systems, energy management and precision cooling solutions. Emerson's data center-related revenues were approximately $2.6 billion in fiscal 2008.
http://www.emerson.com
http://www.avocent.com