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Landis+Gyr

Landis+Gyr Group AG is a publicly listed, multinational corporation operating in over 30 countries and headquartered in Cham, Switzerland. Landis+Gyr makes meters and related software for electricity, gas and water utilities.

History

Landis+Gyr was founded in 1896 as Theiler & Co. in Zug, in the canton of Zug, Switzerland, by technician Richard Theiler and entrepreneur Adelrich Gyr.[1] It began by manufacturing electricity meters that were developed by Theiler.[1] Heinrich Landis joined the business in 1903,[2] acquired it in 1904 and introduced Karl Heinrich Gyr as a partner in 1905, renaming it Landis & Gyr.[1] The company benefited from the rise of the electrical industry and expanded abroad over the following years.[1] By 1914, when it was made a joint-stock company, it was the largest employer in the canton of Zug, with over 800 employees.[1]

In the 1920s, Landis & Gyr opened offices in New York City and Australia and took over competitors to form a global technology group.[1][3] From the 1930s, the company diversified with telemetry and remote control products.[1] After leadership struggles in the 1950s, a new management reorganized the financing and accounting and converted Landis & Gyr into a holding company.[1] The range was expanded to include service machines, air conditioning and ventilation products.[1] Landis & Gyr increased its personnel, with 14,000 employees around 1970 (5,200 of them in Zug).[1]

From the mid-1970s and especially after 1984, the group was frequently restructured.[1] In 1987, Landis & Gyr was acquired by Stephan Schmidheiny, who sold it to Elektrowatt in 1995.[1] It is today a part of Siemens Building Technologies. The company was also known for producing optical phone cards until 2006. Landis+Gyr phone cards were used in many countries such as Israel, Belgium, Switzerland and more.[3]

In April 2026, Landis+Gyr completed the divestiture of its Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) business to the private equity firm AURELIUS. The US$215 million transaction, which had been announced in September 2025[4], closed with economic effect as of 31 March 2026 following regulatory approvals. As part of the transaction, AURELIUS acquired Landis+Gyr’s full EMEA metering portfolio across electricity, gas, thermal and water, including associated software and services, five production sites and approximately 2,800 employees[5].

Following the divestiture, Landis+Gyr stated that it would sharpen its strategic focus on the Americas and Asia‑Pacific regions, particularly in higher‑value software, services and grid‑edge intelligence solutions.

Ownership and acquisitions

  • 1976 – Landis+Gyr acquired Duncan Electric Company of Lafayette, Indiana.
  • 1987 – Landis+Gyr acquired MCC Powers of Chicago. MCC Powers had by then been a long established entity in the US building management market. Spurred by the liberalization and deregulation of global markets, Landis+Gyr re-oriented its business, adding electronic products.
  • Late 1990s – In the late 1990s, Landis+Gyr went through a series of different investors and owners, amongst them Elektrowatt, KKR and Siemens.
  • 2004 – Landis+Gyr was acquired by then Australia-based Bayard Capital for an undisclosed amount. Bayard Capital had already acquired the British metering company Ampy Automation-Digilog. As Bayard Capital continued to add other acquisitions to the group, 2008 saw the Landis+Gyr name being extended to the whole group in May 2008. An organizational realignment took place under Bayard Capital's ownership. The company moved to a regional structure, assigning regional corporate structures for North America; South America; UK/Pre-Payment; Europe; and Asia Pacific.
  • 2006 – Landis+Gyr acquired Finnish Enermet Group, and also Hunt Technologies and Cellnet Technologies, both of which are from the United States.
  • 2011 – Landis+Gyr was acquired by Toshiba Corporation of Japan for US$2.3 billion.
  • 2017 – On July 21, 2017, Landis+Gyr listed its shares (ticker symbol: LAND) on the SIX Swiss Exchange.
  • 2026 - On March 31, 2026, Landis+Gyr divested its EMEA business to AURELIUS for US$215 million.

Utilities

Various utilities have worked with Landis+Gyr in meeting their consumers' demand for energy management tools by rolling out smart meters. Below are some of the utilities that have worked with Landis+Gyr in deploying smart metering technology to energy consumers.

Criticism

  • In 2016, Phil Mocek of MuckRock started investigating a project in which Landis+Gyr was involved.[6] After Mocek received the requested information, Landis+Gyr followed up by filing a lawsuit demanding the documentation not be made public.[7]

External links

References

  1. {{HDS|41874|Landis & Gyr|author=Renato Morosoli|date=7 December 2019}}^
  2. {{HDS|31498|Heinrich Landis|author=Renato Morosoli|date=11 November 2008}}^
  3. History Siemens Building Technologies Buildingtechnologies.siemens.com, 1998-10-01, retrieved 2012-12-17^
  4. Landis+Gyr divests EMEA business to AURELIUS www.landisgyr.com, retrieved 2026-04-15^
  5. Landis+Gyr completes divestiture of EMEA business www.landisgyr.com, retrieved 2026-04-15^
  6. Public Records Request: Smart meter security audit plans schedules proposals contracts discussion results (Seattle) 12 April 2016, retrieved 2016-05-26^
  7. A multinational demands to know who reads MuckRock 25 May 2016, retrieved 2016-05-26^