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As a global technology provider operating in a continually-evolving business environment – even more so in the age of COVID – we’re constantly looking to identify acquisition targets that create great value for Hexagon and expand our solutions portfolio. One company that’s been on Hexagon’s PPM division’s radar for several years is PAS Global of Houston, Texas, USA, a leading provider of Operational Technology (OT) integrity solutions.

No doubt by now you’ve heard the great news: Hexagon has officially signed an agreement to acquire PAS which brings a new cybersecurity-focused business segment to PPM and represents synergy opportunities with other Hexagon divisions. We aim to complete this transaction by the end of this year.

Why PAS? And why now?

PAS is a market leader for OT integrity solutions used to prevent, detect and remediate cyber threats, reduce process safety risks and enable trusted data for decision-making in asset-intensive industries like manufacturing, oil & gas, utilities and more. Founded in 1993 by Eddie Habibi, PAS boasts operations in more than 70 countries and helps many of the world’s top industrial organizations ensure OT integrity from the sensor to the cloud – including 13 of the top 15 refining; 13 of the top 15 chemical; 4 of the top 5 pulp and paper; 3 of the top 5 mining; and 7 of the top 20 power generation companies.

It’s a great fit with PPM.

Habibi, considered a pioneer and thought leader in the fields of industrial control systems (ICS) cybersecurity, IIoT, data analytics and operations management, agrees.

“We have long admired Hexagon’s technology portfolio and team,” he said yesterday. “There is strong technology and cultural fit across our two organizations, and we are excited to join forces with Hexagon to deliver more value to customers and empower the autonomous future.”

Habibi, by the way, takes on a new role as Founder and Advisor to PPM President Mattias Stenberg. He will help foster customer relationships and identify new transformative solutions to leverage Hexagon and PAS platforms to accelerate the delivery of the autonomous future.

For PPM, the acquisition will significantly help expand our owner operator customer footprint. And with significant growth forecast in OT cybersecurity, driven by increasing awareness and growing demand from corporations (a recent PAS Global survey finds 85% of respondent organizations are not highly prepared for an OT cyberattack), this deal meets all our M&A expectations for adding highly respected companies capable of increasing revenue and expanding and diversifying our solutions portfolio.

Welcome, PAS. We’re glad to have you join Hexagon.