WILSONVILLE, OR – Siemens is reportedly almost ready to announce a deal to buy Mentor Graphics, Reuters is reporting tonight.

Siemens will pay for $4.5 billion to $4.6 billion in cash for the EDA software developer, Reuters said, citing undisclosed sources familiar with the deal.

Neither company is commenting on the alleged merger, which could be announced Monday, the sources said.

Mentor is the parent company of Valor, which provides software for printed circuit board fabrication and assembly operations. It is attractive to Siemens because of its tools to help further Industry 4.0.

Siemens is one of the few companies with both the financial size and  market interest to take a shot at Mentor. Its annual revenues exceed $75 billion, and it has made big investments in PLM (Tecnomatix and Unicam) and factory line software as well. By owning the PCB side of the equation, Siemens could hypothetically offer manufacturers a single solution encompassing ECAD, PLM and traceability, without the need for machine translators at pick-and-place and test, for example. 

Mentor Graphics is being advised by Bank of America on potential deals. Its shares are being accumulated by Elliott Management, an activist hedge fund that owns 8.1% of the company.

Read Mike Buetow's commentary on the potential acquisition of Mentor by Siemens here (October 2016) and here (May 2011).

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