On 4 December, Hübner Group, a German system supplier for the transportation industry, acquired Cobolt, a Swedish provider of lasers for analytical instrumentation systems. The merger of the two companies, who will make their first joint appearance in February 2016 at Photonics West, San Francisco, is expected to result in a strengthened business that will serve not only the growing global photonics markets but also the wider test and measurement and process control markets.
Hübner, headquartered in Kassel, Germany, has its historic roots as a system supplier for the transportation industry. In 2006, the company entered into new technology markets in the fields of photonics, terahertz and high-frequency electronics. Since then, the Group has brought several innovations to market maturity, such as the tunable laser C-Wave and the T-Cognition / T-Spectralyzer. Both were awarded a Prism Award at Photonics West 2014, as well as several other globally recognised prizes.
Cobolt, based in Stockholm, Sweden, started as a University spin-off 15 years ago, and is now a well-established supplier of a broad range of single-frequency lasers for analytical applications. The acquisition strengthens the Hubner footprint in these markets, according to Ingolf Cedra, member of the corporate board of management of Hübner: ‘Cobolt fits perfectly into our growth plan and I very much look forward to our cooperation and new developments in our joint product portfolio.’
Dr Håkan Karlsson, CEO of Cobolt AB, added: ‘Following our increasing penetration of markets for process and quality control equipment, it makes a lot of sense to merge with a strong corporate partner to better support OEM customers in these fields… The merger with Hübner will allow us to take the next step in development and help us scale up our production.’
Further information
