Adesto completes acquisition of Echelon

Adesto® Technologies (NASDAQ: IOTS), a provider of innovative application-specific semiconductors and systems for the IoT era, announced the successful completion of its previously announced acquisition of Echelon Corporation (NASDAQ: ELON). Echelon® is a developer of open-standard networking platforms for connecting, monitoring and controlling devices in commercial and industrial applications.

The definitive agreement was initially announced on June 29, 2018, and Echelon shareholders approved the transaction at a Special Meeting of Shareholders held on September 13, 2018. The transaction closed and became effective today, with each share of Echelon being converted into the right to receive $8.50 in cash, without interest. The cash transaction represents a total equity value of approximately $45 million, and a total enterprise value of about $30 million. Echelon’s trailing 12-month revenue as of the second quarter ended June 30, 2018 was approximately $31.6 million. As a result of the transaction’s close, the common stock of Echelon will no longer be listed for trading on the NASDAQ stock exchange, effective immediately.

Adesto expects to realize cost synergies of approximately $6 million to $8 million in the first 12 months, with more than half to be realized in the fourth quarter of 2018. The Company also expects the acquisition to be accretive to EBITDA and non-GAAP EPS within the first 12 months.

“This acquisition marks a pivotal step for Adesto as we continue to expand our innovative solutions to help customers unlock the true potential of the IoT,” said Narbeh Derhacobian, CEO of Adesto. “We now provide not only semiconductors, but also open-standard networking platforms and tools for connecting, monitoring and controlling devices in commercial and industrial IoT deployments. We have significantly expanded our served available market, while also increasing our revenue and potential for margin expansion. Together with our differentiated non-volatile memory products and our mixed-signal and RF ASICs and IP, we’re able to deliver the essential building blocks that allow seamless access to data, and control of things, in an increasingly connected world.”

The Echelon group will now become Adesto’s Embedded Systems Division, led by Chris Jodoin, former SVP of operations and planning at Echelon.

According to Jodoin, “As part of Adesto, we will continue to support, promote and expand on Echelon’s 30-year heritage, which has become synonymous with intelligent Industrial IoT products and solutions. Our increased scale will enable us to embark on new product initiatives and provide enhanced customer support and access. We look forward to building on our base of an estimated 140 million installed LON-powered devices, and to enabling our customers to achieve success across their applications in smart buildings, smart manufacturing and other industrial segments.”

Over the last several years, Echelon has made significant progress with its Lighting Solutions business. Adesto is currently exploring several strategic alternatives for this product line in order to better align the core Echelon business with Adesto’s long-term focus.

Adesto will provide updates on the Echelon integration as part of its upcoming earnings conference call to be held in early November. Details regarding the date and time of the conference call will be provided at a later date.