M&A Acquirer Playbook

ROCKWELL AUTOMATION, INC acquisition history.

Every deal, price, and strategic rationale.

Company ROCKWELL AUTOMATION, INC
SEC CIK 0001024478
Tracked filings EDGAR · 8-K
Total deals tracked
22
Disclosed 8-K acquisitions, 2013 — present.
Aggregate disclosed value
$2.22B
$2.22B Plex + $609M Clearpath/OTTO Motors lead 22 disclosed deals — software, robotics, and cybersecurity tuck-ins backing an industrial-automation platform.
Active acquisition years
2020 · 2023
2020 alone added six deals (Avnet, ASEM, Kalypso, Oylo, Fiix) plus the Sensia JV close.
Primary sectors
Industrial automation software, autonomous robotics, and OT cybersecurity
across Software & Control (Plex, ASEM, Fiix, Emulate3D), Intelligent Devices (Clearpath/OTTO Motors, MagneMotion, CUBIC), and Lifecycle Services (Kalypso, Sensia JV, Verve, Knowledge Lens).
Verified 22 deals on this page · sourced from SEC filings
All cross-references covered.

22 deals, $2.22B deployed.

Plotted by close date where disclosed, otherwise announcement. Click any marker to jump to the deal entry.

The rationale that repeats.

Three patterns show up across ROCKWELL AUTOMATION's deal book — what the team buys, how it pays, and how it integrates. The patterns are the throughline; the individual deals below are the evidence.

01
Acquisition criteria

Software-first transformation of an industrial hardware business.

Rockwell's largest checks went to software: $2.22 billion for Plex Systems' cloud-native, multi-tenant SaaS manufacturing platform (MES, quality, supply chain) in 2021, alongside Fiix's AI-enabled cloud CMMS and Emulate3D's digital-twin simulation. The strategy, as the company frames it, targets offerings that are catalytic to the organic growth of its core automation portfolio.

Plex SystemsVerve Industrial ProtectionClearpath Robotics (including OTTO Motors)CUBICKnowledge Lens
02
Capital deployment

Serial tuck-ins clustered by capability theme.

Rather than one large deal per year, Rockwell layered many sub-material acquisitions into three buckets: cybersecurity for operational technology (Avnet Data Security, Oylo, Verve Industrial Protection), digital-transformation services (Kalypso, MESTECH, AVATA, Knowledge Lens), and motion and robotics (MagneMotion, Jacobs Automation, Clearpath/OTTO Motors). Most are disclosed in 10-K acquisition footnotes rather than standalone deal 8-Ks.

Plex SystemsVerve Industrial ProtectionClearpath Robotics (including OTTO Motors)CUBICKnowledge Lens
03
Integration approach

Global reach and partnership structures beyond outright buyouts.

Targets span Italy (ASEM), Spain (Oylo), Israel (Avnet), Canada (Fiix, Clearpath), India (Knowledge Lens), Denmark (CUBIC), and Scotland (Odos Imaging). Rockwell also uses non-acquisition structures: it formed the Sensia digital-oilfield joint venture with Schlumberger (owning 53% and consolidating it) and took a roughly $1.0 billion minority equity stake in PTC under a strategic partnership.

Plex SystemsVerve Industrial ProtectionClearpath Robotics (including OTTO Motors)CUBICKnowledge Lens

The full deal book.

22 acquisitions. Click any row to see the deal value, financing structure, target revenue, executive commentary, and the original SEC filing — the evidence behind the patterns above.

End of deal book
22 acquisitions · $2.22B deployed ·2013 — present
VectorShift for deal teams

Bring this depth
to every deal.

Every figure on this page came from public filings. Point the same pipeline at the documents your team actually works on — CIMs, management decks, expert calls, portfolio reports — and get research like this in minutes, not weeks.