Siemens to buy German transportation software provider HaCon

Siemens AG, Europe's largest engineering company, today struck a deal to buy privately-owned German public transportation, mobility and logistics software provider HaCon.

Both companies have agreed to not reveal the financial terms of the transaction, but said that HaCon would be managed as a separate legal entity and wholly owned subsidiary of its Mobility division.

Hanover-based HaCon, which has been in the mobility business for 30 years, provides planning, scheduling and information systems for public transportation, mobility and logistics.

Its trip planning software is used in more than 25 countries and comprises the centerpiece of the travel information systems in operation at more than 100 transport companies and associations and supplies more than 100 million route calculations per day.

Siemens transportation unit, which has annual sales of €.8 billion ($8.5 billion), is already into road mobility solutions and complete driverless operation and rail automation.

The Munich-based conglomerate said that the acquisition will help it to serve rail infrastructure operators and public transportation companies as a single-source supplier of innovative software solutions for train and route planning, timetable information systems.

''The acquisition of HaCon will enable us to enter a completely new business area that complements our current portfolio, expanding it to include timetable scheduling as well as trip planning by passengers," said Jochen Eickholt, CEO of Siemens' Mobility Division.

"With this move, we're rigorously implementing our digitalisation strategy and opening up new growth opportunities for our company along our customers' value chain," he added.