2016 Acquisitions of Interconnect Companies

The connector industry has seen many acquisitions within the industry since the mid-1990s. In the last ten years, there have been 187 acquisitions, an average of nearly 19 acquisitions per year.

Many of the acquisitions that have occurred have been the larger connector companies buying-up their smaller competitors or acquiring companies to fill product gaps. One of the largest sales completed in 2016 was the acquisition of FCI by Amphenol. FCI’s revenues were estimated at $600 million in the prior year. Other acquisitions were more strategic such as TE, who has been pursuing a strategy of acquiring companies in harsh environment businesses or Molex who has acquired a number of companies who focus on medical applications.

The landscape of the industry has been changed by acquisitions. Since 2000, the ten largest interconnect companies have gone from holding 48.9% of the industry market share to 57.7% of the market share in 2015. A significant portion of this growth has occurred as the result of acquisitions. Companies that were once part of the top ten, such as T&B, Berg, Augat and Cinch, no longer exist as independent companies.

Bishop & Associates has noted 19 acquisitions in the interconnect space in 2016 by 14 different companies. The following is a list of acquirers and the acquired:

Amphenol
• Acquired FCI (Jan 2016)
• Acquired Martec (June 2016)

Avnet
• Acquired Premier Farnell (July 2016)

Axon’ Cable SAS
• Acquired CISAL SAS (January 2016)

Carlisle Interconnect Technologies
• Acquired Micro-Coax (June 2016)

Corning
• Acquired Alliance Fiber Optic (June 2016)

J. F. Lehman & Company (“JFLCO”)
• Acquired API Technologies Corp. (Spectrum Controls) (April 2016)

Leoni
• Acquired 51% of Wuhan Hengtong Automotive (September 2016)

Littelfuse, Inc
• Completes acquisition of circuit protection business of TE Connectivity Ltd (March 2016)

Molex
• Acquired Interconnect Systems (April 2016)
• Acquired Phillips-Midsize (Aug 2016)

PEI-Genesis
• Acquired connector manufacturer FilConn (May 2016)

Phoenix Contact
• Acquired Perle Systems Limited (2016)

Samtec
• Acquired nMode Solutions (May 2016)

Snow Phipps
• Acquired Winchester (July 2016)

TE Connectivity
• Acquired Creganna Medical Group (April 2016)
• Acquired Jaquet Technology Group (May 2016)
• Acquired Intercontec Group (October 2016)

Weidmüller Group
• Bosch Rexroth Monitoring Systems (Aug 2016)