Landis+Gyr: The next subsidiary of GE?

How do you grab a chunk of the smart-grid action if you don’t want to spend time building your market from the ground up? You buy a company that’s already done so, of course.

That, according to a Reuters news report, is what GE appears to be considering. The giant company once known for “bringing good things to life” (its slogan is now “imagination at work”) is reportedly using its imagination to stake a leadership position in the smart metering market by making a bid for Switzerland’s Landis+Gyr.

According to Reuters, GE is one of several potential suiters proposing to cough up as much as $2 billion for the smart metering firm.

In a report last year, “Europe’s Smart Meter Outlook 2020,” Greenbang ranked Landis+Gyr as the number-two influencer (Echelon ranked number one) in the EU’s smart-grid sphere.

Headquartered in Zug, Switzerland, Landis+Gyr has seen well over two million of its smart meters deployed in 30-plus countries. It’s part of a consortium working to roll out 35 million smart meters across France between 2012 and 2017 — the largest smart metering deployment in the world to date. Earlier this year, the company was also chosen by the State Grid Corporation of China to help build what is says will be “the world’s largest smart grid.”

Landis+Gyr reports that it has annualised sales of more than $1.25 billion.