Honeywell have agreed to acquire privately held Sparta Systems for $1.3 billion in an all-cash transaction from New Mountain Capital. Sparta Systems is a provider of enterprise quality management software (QMS), including a next-generation SaaS platform, for the life sciences industry. The acquisition strengthens Honeywell's abilities in industrial automation, digital transformation solutions and enterprise performance management software.
Honeywell will leverage its global presence, Honeywell Forge and Sparta's expertise to introduce new, integrated solutions, including QMS offerings, for life sciences and adjacent industries. Honeywell's customers will benefit from advanced digital QMS solutions to help them proactively achieve better quality, which results in improved new therapies, faster time to market, better business and patient outcomes and effective regulatory compliance.
"Sparta's TrackWise Digital and QualityWise.aiSM are a welcome addition to Honeywell's enterprise performance management software, Honeywell Forge, and will further enhance the link between quality and production data for life sciences manufacturers," said Que Dallara, president and CEO of Honeywell Connected Enterprise. "Our combined offerings will make it easier for customers to gain critical insights from manufacturing and quality data that can improve their manufacturing processes while ensuring product quality, patient safety, and supply chain continuity."
"Sparta Systems is an ideal complement to our life sciences portfolio," said Rajeev Gautam, president and CEO of Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies. "While Sparta's capabilities will initially help us expand our capabilities for our existing breakthrough initiative in life sciences, we plan to leverage Honeywell's global footprint and expertise to quickly expand Sparta's capabilities to serve other markets. We have strong conviction in the growth opportunities in the life sciences and pharmaceuticals space and in the synergies between Sparta and Honeywell both for Honeywell Connected Enterprise and Honeywell Forge as well as for Honeywell Process Solutions."
Sparta Systems is headquartered in Hamilton, N.J., and has approximately 250 employees globally. Sparta serves more than 400 customers, including 42 of the world's top 50 pharma companies and 33 of the top 50 medical device companies.
"Organizations need a quality management software solution with advanced digital capabilities that effectively automates, optimizes and standardizes quality processes across the board," said Dana Jones, CEO of Sparta. "When you combine Sparta's leading QMS platform with Honeywell's existing process automation and software offerings, you create a highly differentiated, comprehensive solution that allows customers to focus more on the value-add activities that will accelerate their growth."
Honeywell will continue to enhance TrackWise Digital QMS by adding AI and machine learning capabilities that augment human decision making. Honeywell will also add new IoT-enabled connectivity between quality and operational data to detect manufacturing anomalies and triage quality events in near real time.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and is subject to certain regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. There is no change to Honeywell's 2020 financial outlook as a result of the acquisition.
