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| Hexagon AB | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Full name | Hexagon AB |
| Founded | 1975 (as Eken Industri och Handel AB); incorporated as Hexagon AB in October 1993 |
| Headquarters | Stockholm, Sweden |
| Industry | Industrial technology, Measurement, Robotics |
| Key people | Anders Svensson (President and CEO, from July 2025); Ola Rollen (former CEO, Chairman) |
| Revenue | $5.5 billion (2023) |
| Employees | ~24,000 |
| Products | Measurement technology, geospatial systems, CAD/CAM software, humanoid robots |
| Stock exchange | Nasdaq Stockholm (HEXA B) |
| Website | hexagon.com |
Hexagon AB is a Swedish multinational industrial technology company headquartered in Stockholm. Publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange, Hexagon is a global leader in measurement technology, geospatial systems, and industrial software, with approximately 24,000 employees and revenue of $5.5 billion as of 2023. The company operates through multiple divisions including Manufacturing Intelligence, Geosystems, Autonomous Solutions, Asset Lifecycle Intelligence, and Safety, Infrastructure and Geospatial.[1][2]
Hexagon's transformation from a diversified conglomerate into a focused technology company was driven by financier Melker Schorling, who acquired a controlling stake in 1998, and Ola Rollen, who served as CEO from 2000 to 2022. Under Rollen's leadership, Hexagon completed more than 170 acquisitions between 2000 and 2022, including landmark deals for Brown and Sharpe, Leica Geosystems, Intergraph, and MSC Software.[1]
In June 2025, Hexagon entered the humanoid robotics market with the launch of AEON, an industrial humanoid robot developed in partnership with NVIDIA, marking a significant expansion of the company's capabilities into physical automation.[3]
The predecessor company of Hexagon AB was founded on August 29, 1970. The company traces its formal origins to September 1975 with the founding of Eken Industri och Handel AB in Stockholm, Sweden. During its first decades, the company operated as a sprawling conglomerate with investments in diverse industries including seafood imports, vehicle hydraulics, and day-care centers.[1]
After merging with its parent company, Investment AB Eken, in 1987 and completing several acquisitions, the company was formally incorporated as Hexagon AB (originally Hexagon Aktiebolag) in October 1993. Through the 1990s, Hexagon remained a diversified holding company without a clear strategic focus.[1]
The decisive turning point came in 1998 when Swedish financier Melker Schorling acquired a controlling stake in Hexagon. In 2000, Schorling appointed Ola Rollen, former CEO of Kanthal, as the new CEO of Hexagon AB. Rollen would lead the company for over two decades, transforming it from a conglomerate into one of the world's leading industrial technology companies through a sustained program of strategic acquisitions.[1][2]
Major acquisitions under Rollen's leadership included:
| Year | Acquisition | Price | Significance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Brown and Sharpe | ~$180 million | Metrological tools and coordinate measuring machines |
| 2005 | Leica Geosystems | Undisclosed (won bidding against Danaher) | Survey, geospatial, and measurement instruments |
| 2010 | Intergraph | $2.1 billion | Geospatial and enterprise software |
| 2017 | MSC Software | $834 million | Simulation and virtual testing software |
| 2021 | Infor EAM | $800M cash + $1.95B in Hexagon shares | Enterprise asset management (gave Koch Industries 5% stake) |
By the time Rollen stepped down as CEO at the end of 2022 (becoming Chairman of the Board), Hexagon had completed more than 170 acquisitions and had transformed into a focused industrial technology company with particular strengths in measurement technology, positioning systems, CAD/CAM software, geographic information systems (GIS), and enterprise software.[1]
In 2016, Rollen was detained by Norwegian authorities over insider trading allegations unrelated to Hexagon. He was acquitted in 2018 and again in 2019 by the Oslo appeals court.[1]
Paolo Guglielmini, former COO, succeeded Rollen as President and CEO at the start of 2023. On July 20, 2025, Anders Svensson took over as President and CEO, marking the latest leadership transition in the company's ongoing evolution.[1]
In 2025, Hexagon announced plans to separate into two companies by spinning off its Asset Lifecycle Intelligence and Safety, Infrastructure and Geospatial divisions, along with the ETQ and Bricsys businesses, into a new entity called Octave. Octave would operate as a pure-play software and SaaS company focused on helping customers make smarter, more data-driven decisions.
Collectively, the businesses destined for Octave had approximately 7,200 employees as of December 31, 2024, and revenues of approximately 1.448 billion euros with an adjusted operating margin of approximately 31%. Hexagon's Board resolved to propose the distribution and listing of Octave Intelligence plc to its Annual General Meeting on April 24, 2026, with anticipated stock exchange listings on the Nasdaq Global Select Market in New York and Nasdaq Stockholm.[4][5]
In early 2025, Hexagon announced the creation of a dedicated Robotics division. On June 17, 2025, at the flagship Hexagon LIVE Global event, the company launched AEON, an industrial humanoid robot developed in partnership with NVIDIA, Microsoft, and maxon. AEON represented a significant strategic expansion for Hexagon, combining the company's decades of expertise in precision measurement and spatial intelligence with advanced robotics and AI capabilities.[3][6]
Hexagon operates through several major business divisions:
| Division | Focus area |
|---|---|
| Manufacturing Intelligence | Coordinate measuring machines, 3D scanning, quality inspection, metrology software |
| Geosystems | Survey instruments, LiDAR, reality capture, positioning systems (Leica Geosystems) |
| Autonomous Solutions | Positioning technology, GNSS receivers, machine control, autonomous solutions |
| Asset Lifecycle Intelligence | Enterprise asset management, predictive maintenance (Infor EAM) |
| Safety, Infrastructure & Geospatial | Public safety, utility management, GIS (Intergraph heritage) |
| Robotics | Humanoid robots, autonomous industrial solutions (AEON) |
AEON is Hexagon's industrial humanoid robot, launched in June 2025 as the first product of the company's new Robotics division.
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Height | 165 cm |
| Weight | 60 kg |
| Degrees of freedom | 34 |
| Max speed | 8.6 km/h |
| Payload | 15 kg |
| Battery life | 4 hours (hot-swappable batteries) |
| Onboard compute | NVIDIA Jetson Orin (planned upgrade to NVIDIA IGX Thor) |
| Key partners | NVIDIA, Microsoft, maxon |
AEON combines advanced locomotion, sensor fusion, and AI-based spatial intelligence to address labor shortages and industrial use cases. The robot leverages NVIDIA's full-stack robotics and simulation platforms, including Isaac Sim and Isaac Lab, for training. Through this simulation-first approach, AEON mastered core locomotion skills in two to three weeks rather than the five to six months typically required.[3][6]
Hexagon's Robotics division is piloting AEON with industrial partners including Schaeffler and Pilatus across applications such as manipulation, machine tending, part inspection, and reality capture. Target deployment sectors include automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and logistics.[3]
Brown and Sharpe, acquired in late 2001 for approximately $180 million, was Hexagon's first major acquisition under Ola Rollen's leadership and signaled the company's strategic pivot toward measurement technology. Founded in 1833 in Providence, Rhode Island, Brown and Sharpe was one of the oldest and most respected names in precision measurement and metrology, producing coordinate measuring machines (CMMs), micrometers, calipers, and other high-precision instruments. The acquisition gave Hexagon immediate credibility and market share in the industrial metrology market, and Brown and Sharpe's product lines became a cornerstone of what would grow into Hexagon's Manufacturing Intelligence division.[1]
Leica Geosystems, acquired in 2005 after a competitive bidding process against Danaher, is one of Hexagon's most important subsidiaries. Originally part of the Leica Camera heritage, Leica Geosystems is a global leader in survey instruments, total stations, GPS/GNSS receivers, laser scanners, and LiDAR systems. The company's products are used by surveyors, construction companies, mining operations, and law enforcement agencies worldwide. The acquisition gave Hexagon a dominant position in the geospatial and surveying markets and provided the foundation for its Geosystems division. Leica Geosystems remains headquartered in Heerbrugg, Switzerland, and operates as a semi-autonomous subsidiary within the Hexagon group.[1]
The 2010 acquisition of Intergraph for $2.1 billion was Hexagon's largest deal and transformed the company's software capabilities. Intergraph, founded in 1969 in Huntsville, Alabama, was a pioneer in computer-aided design, geographic information systems, and public safety software. The company's products served government agencies, utility companies, transportation authorities, and defense organizations across dozens of countries. The acquisition brought significant software capabilities in public safety dispatch and records management, utility network management, transportation planning, and defense intelligence. Intergraph's technology became the core of Hexagon's Safety, Infrastructure and Geospatial division, and the deal established Hexagon as a major enterprise software company in addition to its hardware measurement business.[1]
MSC Software, acquired in 2017 for $834 million, brought simulation and virtual testing capabilities to Hexagon's portfolio. MSC, originally founded as MacNeal-Schwendler Corporation, develops finite element analysis (FEA), multibody dynamics, and acoustic simulation software used by engineers to predict how products will behave under real-world conditions. The acquisition complemented Hexagon's measurement and quality assurance solutions with predictive simulation, creating a more complete digital manufacturing workflow from design simulation through production measurement and quality control.[1]
In 2021, Hexagon acquired Infor's Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) business for $800 million in cash plus approximately $1.95 billion in Hexagon shares, giving Koch Industries (Infor's parent company) a roughly 5% stake in Hexagon. Infor EAM is a cloud-based enterprise asset management platform used by organizations to track, maintain, and optimize their physical assets. The deal formed the basis of Hexagon's Asset Lifecycle Intelligence division and expanded the company's reach into operational technology and predictive maintenance.[1]
Hexagon's technology portfolio spans the full lifecycle of physical assets and manufactured products. The company's core expertise areas include precision measurement (from nanometer-scale metrology to kilometer-scale surveying), spatial data capture and processing (LiDAR, photogrammetry, GNSS positioning), industrial simulation and digital twins, enterprise asset management, and increasingly, autonomous industrial systems including humanoid robotics.
The company serves customers in manufacturing (automotive, aerospace, electronics), construction and infrastructure, mining and agriculture, government and public safety, energy and utilities, and defense and intelligence. Hexagon's products are used in nearly every country, with major operations across Europe, North America, Asia-Pacific, and Latin America.[1][2]
Hexagon AB is publicly traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm exchange under the ticker HEXA B. The company's largest shareholder is MSAB, the investment vehicle of Melker Schorling's family, which has maintained a controlling interest in Hexagon since Schorling's 1998 acquisition. Koch Industries holds approximately 5% following the 2021 Infor EAM transaction. The remainder of shares are held by institutional and retail investors globally.[1]
The company is organized as a holding company with semi-autonomous operating divisions, each headed by a division president who reports to the Group CEO. This structure allows Hexagon to maintain the entrepreneurial culture of its acquired businesses while achieving group-level coordination in technology development, cross-selling, and capital allocation.
As of 2023, Hexagon AB reported revenue of approximately $5.5 billion, total assets of $18.1 billion, and profits of approximately $1.1 billion. The company employs approximately 24,000 people worldwide. Hexagon's shares are traded on the Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker HEXA B. The company has consistently generated strong operating margins, typically in the range of 25 to 30%, reflecting the high value-added nature of its measurement technology and software products.[1]