Siemens AG is to acquire Argentina’s Itron SA, the computer consulting, integration and services company that has a 40% share of its home market. Siemens, which says it want to compete against IBM Corp in Argentina, plans to buy 60% of the company from its current owner, the Macri family led by entrepreneur Francisco Macri. Last year, Siemens won a $550m contract by the Argentine ministry of the interior to create a system enabling it to issue new, machine-readable personal ID cards to the entire population over the next six years (CI No 3,355). Iton, which has lucrative telecommunications contracts and has been contracted to upgrade computers and communications for Argentina’s 1,200 post offices, made $300m in revenues during 1997.
