German multinational conglomerate corporation Siemens has signed an agreement to acquire Netherlands-based Sqills, a leading provider in the provision of cloud-based inventory management, reservation, and ticketing software to public transport operators around the world.
The trains-to-industrial software maker will pay an initial $651.09 million for Sqills. The latest acquisition is in line with Siemens’ plans to step into high-growth markets outside its core activities.
Sqills has forecast revenues of around $47.3 million in 2022 and provides services to 33 operators, with customers including France’s state-owned railway company SNCF, channel tunnel operator Eurostar and Irish Rail.
The Netherlands-based company has developed the “S3 Passenger” platform that allows rail and bus operators to replace their old reservation systems with an online booking system that increases the utilization and availability of passenger transportation.
Roland Busch President & CEO Siemens
“The acquisition of Sqills is a perfect example of how Siemens combines the real and digital worlds to empower its customers in their transformation. At the same time, Sqills supports our own growth path for digital services and is a great example of applying our capital allocation criteria through targeted acquisitions. It also fits perfectly to our recently announced focus on generating recurring revenue through resilient business models such as Software as a Service.”
At its investor day in June Siemens said it wanted to enter additional markets that generate annual revenues of $142 billion through a combination of organic growth and acquisitions.
The acquisition of Sqills is the latest example of Siemens’ dedication to developing its software portfolio for digital intermodal and connected mobility solutions. The S3 Passenger will become part of an interconnected software portfolio where a wide variety of services for public transport are brought together.
