US National Instruments to buy Israel’s OptimalPlus for $365 million

US firm National Instruments Corporation (NI), a producer of automated test equipment and virtual instrumentation software, said Tuesday it has entered an agreement to buy Israel’s OptimalPlus Ltd., a maker of data analytics software for the semiconductor, automotive and electronics industries.

The deal is for $365 million, the US firm said in a statement. Shares of NI are traded on Nasdaq at a market value of $5 billion.

NI and OptimalPlus have highly complementary activities in the semiconductor, automotive and electronics industries, the statement said. The acquisition will expand NI’s enterprise software capabilities and provide customers with insights about their product development through the advanced product analytics offered by OptimalPlus.

Holon, Israel-based OptimalPlus was founded in 2005 by Dan Glotter, who is its CEO. The firm, which also has offices in Asia, Europe and the US, had revenue of $51 million in 2019 and employs some 240 workers. The firm has raised some $81 million from investors including Israeli VC funds Viola, Pitango Venture Capital, Evergreen Venture Partners and investment firm KKR, according to data compiled by Start-Up Nation Central.

OptimalPlus’ technology uses machine learning to provide real-time analytics and to get insights from data across the entire production and supply chain, providing clients with metrics on quality, yield and efficiency and reliability. Customers include Nvidia, Qualcomm, Continental and Samsung, according to the firm’s website.

“The addition of OptimalPlus’ data analytics capabilities will enable us to accelerate our growth strategy by increasing enterprise-level value for shared customers in the semiconductor and automotive industries.” said Eric Starkloff, NI president and CEO, in the statement.