Manufacturing · Profile from Manufacturing Research Companion: Companies, Strategic Moves, and Technical Studies
Siemens
The Munich industrial group that Werner von Siemens founded in Berlin in 1847 as a telegraph workshop, that grew into Europe's archetypal electrical conglomerate — power plants, trains, medical scanners, phones, light bulbs, appliances — and that spent 2007–27 taking itself apart and rebuilding around one idea: the factory's operating system. Siemens sells the programmable logic controllers, drives and motors that run a large share of the world's production lines (SIMATIC, Totally Integrated Automation), and it has bought the software that designs the products and plans the plants: UGS (2007, $3.5bn, Plano, Texas), Mentor Graphics (2017, $4.5bn), Altair (completed 26 Mar 2025, $113 a share in cash, ~$10bn EV per Shared facts) and Dotmatics (2025, ~$5.1bn reported). On the way it survived the largest corporate bribery case of its era — $800m to the US DOJ and SEC and €395m in Munich on 15 Dec 2008, after €201m in 2007 — listed Siemens Healthineers (16 Mar 2018), spun off Siemens Energy (28 Sep 2020) and in 2025–26 prepared to hand ~30% of Healthineers directly to its own shareholders. In fiscal 2025 (to 30 Sep 2025) it reported record revenue of €78.9bn, orders of €88.4bn, net income of €10.4bn and free cash flow of €10.8bn (company). The question its story asks is whether owning the software layer above the controller is a better business than owning the equipment — and whether a 178-year-old manufacturer can make that shift without losing the hardware base that gives the software its customers.
At a glance
- Founded
- Telegraphen-Bauanstalt von Siemens & Halske, Berlin, 1 Oct 1847, by Werner von Siemens and Johann Georg Halske (from memory, verify)
- Headquarters
- Munich, Germany (moved from Berlin after 1945, from memory, verify); Siemens Digital Industries Software headquartered in Plano, Texas (company); Siemens USA's largest US operations include Fort Worth and Grand Prairie (Texas), Pomona (California), Sacramento (rail, California) and sites in the Carolinas (company, reported; verify full list)
- Ownership / structure
- Public (Xetra: SIE; DAX member; US ADRs over the counter, verify); the Siemens family holds a minority stake (~6%, from memory, verify). Siemens holds ~67% of Siemens Healthineers (plan to cut to ~37%, Feb 2027 AGM vote) and a reduced stake in Siemens Energy (below 20% by 2025–26, verify — equal to the Energy KB)
- Leadership (2026)
- Roland Busch, president and CEO since Feb 2021 (from memory, verify); Jim Hagemann Snabe, supervisory-board chair (from memory, verify); Cedrik Neike heads Digital Industries (from memory, verify)
- Segments
- Digital Industries (automation hardware — PLCs, drives, motion control, CNC — and industrial software: NX, Teamcenter, Simcenter, Opcenter, Siemens EDA, Altair); Smart Infrastructure (buildings, low- and medium-voltage electrical products, grid software); Mobility (trains, signalling, rail services); Siemens Healthineers (consolidated, ~67%); Siemens Financial Services; portfolio companies (from memory, verify current segment list)
- Scale
- FY2025: revenue €78.9bn, orders €88.4bn, net income €10.4bn (+16%), free cash flow €10.8bn (Siemens Q4 FY2025 release, Nov 2025; record). Q3 FY2026 (to 30 Jun 2026, released Aug 2026): orders a record €27.9bn (+14% comparable), revenue €20.8bn (+8% comparable), net income €2.6bn (vs €2.2bn); FY2026 EPS pre-PPA guidance raised to €11.20–11.50 (from €10.70–11.10). Digital Industries Q3: orders and revenue ~€4.9bn each (+9% and +10% comparable); profit reported as ~€923m (18.7%) in one summary and differently in others (verify vs the release); FY202
- Signature moves (incl. failures)
- Siemens & Halske founding (1847); the bribery scandal and Löscher's reforms (2006–08); UGS and the PLM foundation (2007); Kaeser's Vision 2020 and the portfolio break-up (2014–20); Mentor Graphics and Digital Industries (2017); the Healthineers IPO (2018) and the deconsolidation plan (2025–27); the Siemens Energy spin-off (2020); Altair, Dotmatics and Xcelerator (2022–25); the US electrical-equipment factories and the "$10bn" pledge (2025–26)
9 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
1847
Siemens and Halske Founding
Founding
2006
Bribery Scandal and Loescher Reforms
Regulatory or legal action (failure) — foreign-bribery investigations, guilty pleas and a compliance overhaul
2007
UGS Acquisition and the PLM Foundation
Acquisition — US product-lifecycle-management (PLM) software company from private-equity owners
2014
Vision 2020 and Kaeser Portfolio Reshaping
Strategy pivot — portfolio reshaping through disposals, carve-outs, an IPO and a spin-off
2017
Mentor Graphics and Digital Industries
Acquisition — US electronic-design-automation (EDA) software company, plus the reorganisation of automation and software into Digital Industries
2018
Healthineers IPO and the 2027 Spin Plan
Spin-off or IPO — carve-out IPO (2018) followed by a planned direct spin-off of 30% to Siemens shareholders (vote Feb 2027)
2020
Siemens Energy Spin Off
Spin-off — distribution of the Gas and Power business plus the Siemens Gamesa stake as Siemens Energy AG
2025
Altair Dotmatics and Xcelerator
Acquisition (two US software companies) and platform launch (Siemens Xcelerator)
2025
US Electrical Factories and the 10bn Pledge
New plant or line — greenfield and expansion plants for low-voltage electrical equipment, inside a broader US investment announcement