ie8 fix
Click Here

The world's smart grid leader is ... Toshiba?

By | May 19, 2011, 11:21am PDT

One of the smart grid technology players that you may have heard less about is smart meter maker Landis+Gyr. Which is surprising, because this is a big smart meter company — with more than 8,000 utility customers — and is apparently the North American leader in smart meter shipments (according to IDC Energy Insights).

That’s about to change: High-tech giant Toshiba has proposed plunking down roughly $2.3 billion in cash to buy Landis+Gyr in a bid to build “the world’s smart grid leader.” The Landis+Gyr brand (which has been around for more than 100 years) actually will remain. Only now, its smart grid message is much deeper, reaching back into the energy systems and infrastructure technologies that are at the heart of Toshiba’s “Smart Community” strategy. What we’re talking about is an integrated smart building and smart grid strategy, one that will put Toshiba in position to become a major end-to-end smart grid technology infrastructure supplier.

In a statement, Toshiba Corporate Executive Vice President Hideo Kitamura said:

“Our intent is to become a global leader in the Smart Community business by 2020. Together with Landis+Gyr, we will accelerate the development of our combined product and service portfolio to empower utilities and their end customers and to provide sophisticated Smart Community solutions in the global market.”

So much for notebook computers. Seriously, watch out, Cisco and IBM, which are two other big high-tech companies making big players with “smart” technologies spanning everything from the smart grid to smart buildings to smart water systems.

Even if U.S. deployments of the smart grid stall along with the flagging recovery, Toshiba’s is making a good bet on Landis+Gyr. Aside from its U.S. leadership position, the company was the third biggest player in EMEA during 2010 (according to IDC Energy Insights). Also consider that it is the company that won the bid to supply more than 10,000 smart meters in what will probably end up being the world’s biggest smart grid deployment of them all, the one being built out across China.

The deal is subject to regulatory approvals, of course. Right now, it is expected to close in the third quarter of 2011.

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Topics

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues.

Disclosure

Heather Clancy

Writing publicly about what the high-tech industry is actually doing to help itself and the world get greener or more sustainable is one way I figure I can contribute more meaningfully to said effort. I am also a big OMG-kind-of-fan of smart leadership, which is why the goodly folks who publish this blog let me go on about this topic and why I am always on the hunt for forward-looking business management ideas.

My daily writing is focused on looking for topics for my blogs, GreenTech Pastures and Business Brains. I also write often about emerging technology trends such as mobile computing, unified communications and cloud computing. Occasionally, I will pop up at an industry conference in some sort of speaking capacity. In cases where a speaking engagement involves a sponsor that may be covered in this blog, that fact will be disclosed in coverage as appropriate.

My corporate writing work usually consists of crafting research white papers about some aspect of technology. In the event that my commentary (in written, audio or video form) mentions a company for which I have provided consulting advice, I will disclose that fact. However, there is no connection between these projects and the topics that I am covering in my blog.

Biography

Heather Clancy

Heather Clancy is an award-winning business journalist with a passion for green technology and corporate sustainability issues. Her articles have appeared in Entrepreneur, Fortune Small Business, The International Herald Tribune and The New York Times. In a past corporate life, Heather was editor of Computer Reseller News, where she was a featured speaker about everything from software as a service to IT security to mobile computing.

Heather started her journalism life as a business writer with United Press International in New York. She holds a B.A. in English literature from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, and has a thing for Lewis Carroll.

2
Comments

Join the conversation!

Just In

RE: The world's smart grid leader is ... Toshiba?
seolair 4th Oct
Toshiba is really starting to pick it up in terms of their product offering. By releasing solid products and expanding their offering I think they will continue to grow at a fast pace. Make sure to use income infuser and make some extra cash online.
0 Votes
+ -
RE: The world's smart grid leader is ... Toshiba?
Robert Williams 22 19th May 2011
WIRELESS SMART METERS - 100 TIMES MORE RADIATION THAN CELL PHONES.
Video Interview: Nuclear Scientist, Daniel Hirsch, (5 minutes: 38 seconds).
http://stopsmartmeters.org/2011/04/20/daniel-hirsch-on-ccsts-fuzzy-math/

WIRELESS SMART METERS - CANCER, NERVOUS SYSTEM DAMAGE, ADVERSE REPRODUCTION AFFECTS.
Video Interview: Dr. Carpenter, New York Public Health Department, Dean of Public Health, (2 minutes: 23 seconds).
http://emfsafetynetwork.org/?p=3946
Toshiba is really starting to pick it up in terms of their product offering. By releasing solid products and expanding their offering I think they will continue to grow at a fast pace. Make sure to use income infuser and make some extra cash online.

Join the conversation!

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]
ie8 fix

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources
ie8 fix