Landis+Gyr

{{Short description|Multinational electronics corporation}}

{{Infobox company

| name = Landis+Gyr AG

| logo = Landis+Gyr logo.svg

| type = Publicly traded limited company

| traded_as = SIX: LAND

| industry = Electronics

| fate =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| defunct =

| area_served = Worldwide

| key_people = Andreas Umbach (Chairman)
Peter Mainz (CEO)

| products = {{ubl|Energy meters|Heat meters|Gas meters|Smart meters|Smart grid solutions}}

| services =

| revenue = US $1.4 Billion

| operating_income =

| net_income =

| assets =

| equity =

| owner =

| num_employees = 6,900

| divisions =

| subsid =

| footnotes =

| foundation = {{Start date and age|1896}} in Zug, Switzerland

| founder = Richard Theiler
Adelrich Gyr

| location_city = Cham (ZG)

| location_country = Switzerland

| location =

| homepage = {{URL|www.landisgyr.com}}

}}

Landis+Gyr AG is a publicly listed, multinational corporation operating in over 30 countries and headquartered in Cham, Switzerland. Landis+Gyr makes meters and related software for electricity and gas utilities.

History

Landis+Gyr was founded in 1896 as Theiler & Co. in Zug, in the canton of Zug, Switzerland, by technician Richard Theiler and entrepreneur Adelrich Gyr.{{HDS|41874|Landis & Gyr|author=Renato Morosoli|date=7 December 2019}} It began by manufacturing electricity meters that were developed by Theiler. Heinrich Landis joined the business in 1903,{{HDS|31498|Heinrich Landis|author=Renato Morosoli|date=11 November 2008}} acquired it in 1904 and introduced Karl Heinrich Gyr as a partner in 1905, renaming it Landis & Gyr. The company benefited from the rise of the electronics industry and expanded abroad over the following years. By 1914, when it was made a joint-stock company, it was the largest employer in the canton of Zug, with over 800 employees.

In the 1920s, Landis & Gyr opened offices in New York City and Australia and took over competitors to form a global technology group.{{cite web|url=http://www.buildingtechnologies.siemens.com/bt/global/en/about-us/Pages/about-us.aspx?tabcardname=History# |title=History Siemens Building Technologies |publisher=Buildingtechnologies.siemens.com |date=1998-10-01 |accessdate=2012-12-17}} From the 1930s, the company diversified with telemetry and remote control products. After leadership struggles in the 1950s, a new management reorganized the financing and accounting and converted Landis & Gyr into a holding company. The range was expanded to include service machines, air conditioning and ventilation products. Landis & Gyr increased its personnel, with 14,000 employees around 1970 (5,200 of them in Zug).

From the mid-1970s and especially after 1984, the group was frequently restructured. In 1987, Landis & Gyr was acquired by Stephan Schmidheiny, who sold it to Elektrowatt in 1995. It is today a part of Siemens Building Technologies. The company was also known for producing optical phone cards until 2006. Landis+Gyr phone cards were used in many countries such as Israel, Belgium, Switzerland and more.

=Ownership and acquisitions=

  • 1976 – Landis+Gyr acquired Duncan Electric Company of Lafayette, Indiana.
  • 1987 – Landis+Gyr acquired MCC Powers of Chicago. MCC Powers had by then been a long established entity in the US building management market. Spurred by the liberalization and deregulation of global markets, Landis+Gyr re-oriented its business, adding electronic products.
  • Late 1990s – In the late 1990s, Landis+Gyr went through a series of different investors and owners, amongst them Elektrowatt, KKR and Siemens.
  • 2004 – Landis+Gyr was acquired by then Australia-based Bayard Capital for an undisclosed amount. Bayard Capital had already acquired the British metering company Ampy Automation-Digilog. As Bayard Capital continued to add other acquisitions to the group, 2008 saw the Landis+Gyr name being extended to the whole group in May 2008. An organizational realignment took place under Bayard Capital's ownership. The company moved to a regional structure, assigning regional corporate structures for North America; South America; UK/Pre-Payment; Europe; and Asia Pacific.
  • 2006 – Landis+Gyr acquired Finnish Enermet Group, and also Hunt Technologies and Cellnet Technologies, both of which are from the United States.
  • 2011 – Landis+Gyr was acquired by Toshiba Corporation of Japan for US$2.3 billion.
  • 2017 – On July 21, 2017, Landis+Gyr listed its shares (ticker symbol: LAND) on the SIX Swiss Exchange.

Utilities

Various utilities have worked with Landis+Gyr in meeting their consumers' demand for energy management tools by rolling out smart meters. Below are some of the utilities that have worked with Landis+Gyr in deploying smart metering technology to energy consumers.

Criticism

  • In 2016, Phil Mocek of MuckRock started investigating a project in which Landis+Gyr was involved.{{cite web|url=https://www.muckrock.com/foi/seattle-69/smart-meter-security-audit-plans-schedules-proposals-contracts-discussion-results-seattle-10378/#comms|title=Public Records Request: Smart meter security audit plans schedules proposals contracts discussion results (Seattle)|date=12 April 2016 |accessdate=2016-05-26}} After Mocek received the requested information, Landis+Gyr followed up by filing a lawsuit demanding the documentation not be made public.{{cite web|url=https://www.muckrock.com/news/archives/2016/may/25/multinational-demanding-know-who-reads-muckrock-an/|title=A multinational demands to know who reads MuckRock|date=25 May 2016 |accessdate=2016-05-26}}

References