French electrical equipment manufacturer Schneider Electric plans to acquire American Power Conversion (APC) in a US$6.1 billion deal to create a worldwide developer of critical power products. Both companies make uninterruptible power supplies (UPS), devices that provide backup power to equipment such as servers when electric power fails. Customers use UPS products to ensure that data centers and corporate networks, for example, are always available, even if electrical power fails. Schneider is also known for making a wide variety of other electrical products as well, including power monitoring units, equipment enclosures, circuit breakers, transformers and surge protectors as well as automation software and radio frequency identification products. Schneider expects that critical power products will drive its business going forward. Both companies say they expect strong continued growth in the market for power supply products as more critical applications require continuous power and as the data center market grows. Schneider estimates that 40 percent of the market for UPS products came from data centers and 20 percent from enterprise networking in 2005. Together, Schneider and APC expect to cut operating costs by combining their research and development, sales and service businesses. They also expect to benefit from a broader geographic reach as a single company. The bulk of APC’s sales come from North America and Asia, while Schneider’s sales mostly come from Europe and Asia. In addition to UPS products, APC also makes cooling systems, racks, cables, power generators and surge protectors. Schneider expects the deal to close in the first quarter of next year.-Nancy Gohring, IDG News Service (Dublin Bureau)Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage. Related content News Nvidia accelerates enterprise adoption of generative AI Nvidia’s AI Foundations as-a-service offering aims to help enterprises build and run AI models that generate text, graphics, and even proteins. By Peter Sayer Mar 21, 2023 5 mins Cloud Management Infrastructure Management Artificial Intelligence BrandPost The Era of Multi-Cloud Services Has Arrived How to unlock the benefits of multi-cloud environments By Adelino Simao Mar 21, 2023 4 mins VMware BrandPost Why CISOs Are Looking to Lateral Security to Mitigate Ransomware How to fight ransomeware attacks with lateral security By Adelino Simao Mar 21, 2023 4 mins VMware BrandPost 4 Factors That Influence Modern App Success in a Multi-Cloud Environment Enable your developers to do what they do best: code By Adelino Simao Mar 21, 2023 5 mins VMware Podcasts Videos Resources Events SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe