Robohub.org
 

Adept Technologies: Ready to be acquired?


by
11 September 2013



share this:

Adept Technologies (NASDAQ:ADEP) has been in the financial news for months. First because of poor financial showings; then because of a management shakeup; and recently because the “turnaround plan” has worked well enough that shareholders are bidding the stock up to new highs.

In 2010 Adept Technologies acquired MobileRobots and began a process of professionalizing their mobile robots to Adept’s and their customer’s standards — a process that culminated in 2012.
But by 2012 Adept’s earnings were negative and sales were going down. There were layoffs and shifts in people and activities. This lead to a board- and VC-mandated restructuring plan which sent out Rob Cain as an advisor/consultant to develop that plan.
In early 2013 the results were that the CEO was replaced by Cain and the company instituted a series of actions to become profitable. But when this happened there were many rumors and blog reports that the company was to be sold off for it’s patents, customer list and facilities. Others suggested that it was going into bankruptcy.

Last week, the most recent quarterly earnings report came out and it showed that three things happened: (1) the big losses were quelled – the company broke even; (2) clients were buying Adepts products; and (3) the company was focusing on reducing costs, increasing sales and quality. One analyst reported: “While the June 2013 quarter represents a tentative improvement, it shows demand for Adept’s robots is returning and the company has a much lower cost structure than one year earlier.”

The stock rallied to close at $5.90 – an increase of 126% year-to-date yet the market cap is just $64 million. A small price for a good company.

This may be the perfect time for Adept to be acquired. All the big contract manufacturers are buying robots and creating internal robot operations. Foxconn has even set up its own Foxbot line of robots. Flextronics (NASDAQ:FLEX), Foxconn (TPE:2354), Jabil (NYSE:JBL), Celestica (TSE:CLS), New Kinpo, Plexus (NASDAQ:PLXS) and Benchmark (NYSE:BHE) are perfect candidates.

We’ll just have to wait and see.



tags:


Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.
Frank Tobe is the owner and publisher of The Robot Report, and is also a panel member for Robohub's Robotics by Invitation series.

            AUAI is supported by:



Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack



Related posts :

Simulated zebrafish and a vision-equipped robotic fish reveal how the body shapes brain circuits

Researchers look to the fish brain to create a robotic zebrafish that can autonomously swim upstream.

Researchers develop modular nanorobot

  31 Jul 2026
A team at the University of Basel has developed a versatile nanorobot with propulsion and payload modules.

Surviving the paper deluge: a one-year study in learning from demonstration

With the explosion of robotics research, staying current in fields like Learning from Demonstration is a monumental challenge.

Soft robotic heart offers new way to study disease and test life-saving devices

Researchers have developed a soft robotic model of the human heart that can mimic disease and provide a realistic environment for testing the next generation of cardiac devices.

A mini robot to simplify dental treatment

  24 Jul 2026
Researchers have developed a miniature dental robot that could one day automatically prepare teeth for crowns.

Pressure-free growing robots for soft medical robotics

A Q&A with the best paper award winner at RoboSoft.

Interactive world simulator for robot policy training and evaluation

  20 Jul 2026
Yixuan Wang discusses his faithful world simulator that allows robots to learn how to push, pick up, and grasp objects.

Undergrads’ weed-killing robot wins top prize

  17 Jul 2026
Their robot can travel through a vineyard or orchard without a human operator, zapping weeds with a small amount of electricity.



AUAI is supported by:







Subscribe to Robohub newsletter on substack




 















©2026.05 - Association for the Understanding of Artificial Intelligence