AVEVA Group plc is a British
multinational information technology consulting company headquartered in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England. It is listed on the
London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...
and is a constituent of the
FTSE 100 Index
The Financial Times Stock Exchange 100 Index, also called the FTSE 100 Index, FTSE 100, FTSE, or, informally, the "Footsie" , is a share index of the 100 companies listed on the London Stock Exchange with (in principle) the highest market ...
. The company started as the Computer-Aided Design Centre (or CADCentre) which was created in Cambridge in 1967 by the UK
Ministry of Technology
The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
and
Cambridge University
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
.
History
Early history
The origins of AVEVA start in 1967 in
Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
, England, with the establishment of the CADCentre, as it was more commonly referred to, and later formally became. It was a government-funded research institute created by the UK
Ministry of Technology
The Ministry of Technology was a department of the government of the United Kingdom, sometimes abbreviated as "MinTech". The Ministry of Technology was established by the incoming government of Harold Wilson in October 1964 as part of Wilson's am ...
, with a mission to develop
computer-aided design
Computer-aided design (CAD) is the use of computers (or ) to aid in the creation, modification, analysis, or optimization of a design. This software is used to increase the productivity of the designer, improve the quality of design, improve c ...
techniques and promote their take-up by British industry. Its first director was Arthur Llewelyn, who initially contracted out the recruitment and management of specialist staff to
ICL.
The centre carried out CAD research, and some of its early staff members, such as brothers
Dick Newell
Richard G. Newell is a British businessman and technologist in the software industry in Computer aided design (CAD) and Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Career
Newell holds degrees in Civil Engineering and Numerical Analysis and a PhD in Ch ...
and
Martin Newell, went on to become well known in the worldwide CAD community. Dick Newell oversaw the creation of the
Plant Design Management System
PDMS (Plant Design Management System) as it is known in the 3D CAD industry, is a customizable, multi-user and multi-discipline, engineer controlled design software package for engineering, design and construction projects in offshore and onshore ...
(PDMS) for the 3D process plant design. He later co-founded two software companies –
Cambridge Interactive Systems (CIS) which was known for its
Medusa 2D/3D CAD system, and
Smallworld
Smallworld is the brand name of a portfolio of GIS software provided by GE Digital, a division of General Electric. The software was originally created by the Smallworld company founded in Cambridge, England, in 1989 by Dick Newell and others. S ...
with its eponymous Smallworld GIS (
Geographical Information System
A geographic information system (GIS) is a type of database containing geographic data (that is, descriptions of phenomena for which location is relevant), combined with software tools for managing, analyzing, and visualizing those data. In a br ...
). Martin Newell later went to the
University of Utah
The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of De ...
where he did pioneering 3D
solid modelling
Solid modeling (or solid modelling) is a consistent set of principles for mathematical and computer modeling of three-dimensional shapes '' (solids)''. Solid modeling is distinguished from related areas of geometric modeling and computer graph ...
work; he was also one of the progenitors of
PostScript
PostScript (PS) is a page description language in the electronic publishing and desktop publishing realm. It is a dynamically typed, concatenative programming language. It was created at Adobe Systems by John Warnock, Charles Geschke, Doug Br ...
.
CADCentre became a private company in 1983, was the subject of a
management buyout
A management buyout (MBO) is a form of acquisition in which a company's existing managers acquire a large part, or all, of the company, whether from a parent company or individual. Management-, and/or leveraged buyout became noted phenomena of 1 ...
in 1994 under the leadership of its first managing director, Dr. Bob Bishop, and became a publicly quoted company in 1996. It changed its name to AVEVA in 2001.
Acquisitions
* On 21 April 2004, the company acquired Tribon Solutions, a global supplier of the "''Tribon''"
naval architecture
Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and o ...
software for shipbuilding and marine design, for US$35 million. The acquisition was completed on 19 May 2004.
Tribon was originally developed by Kockum Computer Systems (KCS) for designing commercial and naval vessels. KCS was spun off from
Kockums
Saab Kockums AB is a shipyard headquartered in Malmö, Sweden, owned by the Swedish defence company Saab Group. Saab Kockums AB is further operational in Muskö, Docksta, and Karlskrona. While having a history of civil vessel construction, Koc ...
shipyards as an independent company, later renamed Tribon Systems. The Tribon family of programs create a common set of
databases
In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...
containing the design details of the ship.
* On 31 March 2005, the company acquired Realitywave, Inc., developers of a web collaboration and streaming platform, for £3.2 million.
* On 30 March 2009, AVEVA announced the acquisition of iDesignOffice Pty Ltd, an instrumentation engineering technology company based in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia, specialising in products for plant and marine industries.
* On 3 June 2010, AVEVA Solutions Ltd, a wholly owned unit of AVEVA Group plc, announced the acquisition of Logimatic's MARS business from Logimatic Holdings A/S for £12.8 million. This acquisition was completed on 30 June 2010, and MARS products and services were merged into AVEVA's Enterprise Solutions Group and aligned with its flagship AVEVA NET solution.
[
* On 3 June 2010, AVEVA Solutions Ltd acquired the oil and gas business from ADB Systemer AS, a ]Sola
Sola is a municipality and a Seaside resort in Rogaland county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Jæren. The administrative centre of the municipality is the village of Solakrossen. Other villages include Tananger, Hålandsm ...
-based provider of operations integrity management software aimed at owner operators in the oil and gas industry.
* On 3 October 2011, AVEVA announced the acquisition of LFM (Light Form Modeller) software division of Z+F UK Limited, which allowed it to expand into the 3D data capture market.
* On 23 May 2012, AVEVA announced the acquisition of the Belgium
Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...
and Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
-based Bocad group of companies, a provider of building information modeling
Building information modeling (BIM) is a process supported by various tools, technologies and contracts involving the generation and management of digital representations of physical and functional characteristics of places. Building informatio ...
software for £14 million. The acquisition strengthened AVEVA's 3D structural detailing capabilities for the plant, marine and construction markets.
* On 17 December 2012, AVEVA announced the acquisition of all assets relating to the advanced visualisation and simulation
A simulation is the imitation of the operation of a real-world process or system over time. Simulations require the use of Conceptual model, models; the model represents the key characteristics or behaviors of the selected system or proc ...
software of Huntsville, Alabama
Huntsville is a city in Madison County, Limestone County, and Morgan County, Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Madison County. Located in the Appalachian region of northern Alabama, Huntsville is the most populous city in t ...
-based Global Majic Software, Inc.
* On 5 January 2015, AVEVA announced the acquisition of Derry
Derry, officially Londonderry (), is the second-largest city in Northern Ireland and the fifth-largest city on the island of Ireland. The name ''Derry'' is an anglicisation of the Old Irish name (modern Irish: ) meaning 'oak grove'. The ...
based 8over8 Limited for £26.9 million. 8over8 provides contract risk management software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work.
At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
- ProCon - for the oil, gas and mining, and other infrastructure industries.
* On 25 August 2020, AVEVA announced an agreement to acquire OSIsoft
OSIsoft, LLC is a manufacturer of application software for real-time data management, called the PI System. Founded in 1980, OSIsoft was privately held and headquartered in San Leandro, California. In August 2020, it was announced that the ...
for US$5 billion in one of the largest deals made by a UK-based technology company. The acquisition was completed on 19 March 2021 for a final consideration of £3,831.4 million.
Schneider Electric's industrial software business combines with AVEVA
On 1 March 2018, AVEVA agreed to merge with France-based Schneider Electric
Schneider Electric SE is a French multinational company that specializes in digital automation and energy management. It addresses homes, buildings, data centers, infrastructure and industries, by combining energy technologies, real-time automation ...
's industrial software business in a multi-step reverse takeover
A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compan ...
. Schneider Electric became the largest shareholder with a 60% ownership interest.
On 21 September 2022, Schneider agreed to a full takeover of AVEVA by paying about £3.87billion (US$4.4billion) for the remaining equity, valuing the whole of AVEVA at around £9.48billion (US$10.8billion).
Stadium
In 2019 in Houston, Texas, a new stadium bearing the company's name was inaugurated and became home of the professional rugby team the Houston SaberCats
The Houston SaberCats are an American professional rugby union team based in Houston, Texas. The team was founded in 2017 and competes in Major League Rugby, the top-level rugby union competition in the United States and Canada that played its f ...
.
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
British companies established in 1967
Software companies established in 1967
Computer-aided design software
International information technology consulting firms
Information technology consulting firms
Companies based in Cambridge
Software companies of the United Kingdom
Engineering consulting firms
Holding companies established in 1967
Holding companies of the United Kingdom
1967 establishments in England
Companies listed on the London Stock Exchange
Announced information technology acquisitions
Announced mergers and acquisitions
cs:PDMS