GE to Acquire Lineage Power for $520 Million
General Electric's energy division is buying privately held Lineage Power Holdings in a deal worth about $520 million so its energy unit can gain a foothold in the power conversion space.
The Fairfield, Conn. company said Thursday that the purchase from TheGores Group is another step in its energy expansion efforts. In October GE said it planned to buy energy infrastructure companyDresser. It also plans to make a buyout offer for oil pipe makerWellstream Holdings.
The Lineage Power acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter.
“According to recent studies, there will be 1.1 billion smartphones sold globally by 2013," said Dan Heintzelman, GE Energy Services President & CEO, in a prepared statement. "As the data-driven economy grows, the addition of Lineage Power's business platform continues the expansion of GE Energy's offerings from the electric grid to data centers, cell towers, routers, servers and circuit board electronics."
Lineage Power, based in Plano, Texas, had 2010 revenue of approximately $450 million. It has almost 2,300 employees and manufacturing operations in China, Mexico and India.
Shares of GE rose slightly in pre-market trading Thursday. GE is the parent company of CNBC and CNBC.com.
