HMS Industrial Networks AB, a wholly owned subsidiary of HMS Networks AB (publ), has signed an agreement to acquire the Belgium-based company eWON SA – a leading IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things) manufacturer of intelligent Internet-based remote access routers.

eWON was founded in 2001 and is headquartered in Nivelles, Belgium. With subsidiaries in the USA and Japan, eWON offers cutting edge communication products and services for industrial applications such as for remote access to programmable logic controllers (PLCs), data collection applications and cloud-based connectivity solution. eWON works with major manufacturers of PLC and automation systems globally. In 2015, eWON was named the Industry’s Leading Remote Machine Access Provider by Control Design Readers’ Choice Awards 2015. This market recognition demonstrates eWON’s leading position and is a result of customer focus to provide the best, most reliable and secure solution in the industry.

“In the fast growing business of the Industry 4.0 and Industrial IoT market, we see great opportunities to further strengthen our business and our leadership position by gaining access to HMS’s well-established development organization and sales channels” says Serge Bassem, CEO and co-founder of eWON. “We look forward to be joining HMS and combine our unique competences within industrial Internet communication to develop great products and services for our customers” says Pierre Crokaert, CTO and co-founder.

“eWON’s products are great complements to HMS’s product offering,” says Staffan Dahlström, CEO of HMS Networks AB. “eWON’s strong position primarily in the market for remote access to PLCs, providing a secure “data tunnel” between a software application and a remote machine, will complement and reinforce HMS’s existing remote management offer in the form of Netbiter. eWON is world-leading when it comes to PLC remote access, and joining the two teams and operations will create a strong market position and unique value proposition to our OEM partners and worldwide customer base.”

With more than 15 years of experience, eWON is a fast-growing and leading player in the market for intelligent Internet-based remote access routers. The company employs 57 people of which 13 are product development engineers. eWON has a world-wide sales network with distributors in 45 countries.

Serge Bassem, CEO at eWON and Pierre Crokaert, CTO at eWON will continue to lead eWON in their current roles, the two company founders will through the transaction become two of the top ten shareholders in HMS Networks AB.

eWON’s strong position on the European and US markets is expected to widen HMS’s customer base and to provide a stronger footprint on the market for remote management of PLCs. The acquisition will also strengthen HMS’s existing Netbiter position and create complementing sales channels. eWON will become an important Industrial IoT brand for HMS, and will encompass all HMS’s solutions for connecting machines across the Internet.

With this acquisition, HMS becomes the market leader in remote access and remote monitoring within the industrial communications market. The acquisition gives HMS access to eWON’s successful distribution network in Europe and North America and adds around 15 development engineers to HMS’s total R&D resources. The extended R&D resources are expected to increase flexibility, generating opportunities to develop new solutions in the area of remote management.