Rockwell to take $1 billion stake in software maker PTC

(Reuters) - Factory automation equipment maker Rockwell Automation said on Monday it would buy an 8.4 percent stake in PTC for $ 1 billion as it looks to build on its software capabilities to make smarter manufacturing processes for customers.

Rockwell — which makes electronic motor starters, relays and timers for industries — has been strengthening its capabilities in the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), or technology that allows different devices and systems to communicate with each other over the internet.

Shares of PTC, which offers computer-aided design (CAD) programs as well as lifecycle management software for manufacturers, rose as much as 10.2 percent to a record $ 95.88.

“We do view this agreement as a strategic positive for PTC as it will help open the doors into thousands of companies that traditionally have not used PTC for its core CAD capabilities,” JP Morgan analyst Sterling Auty wrote in a note.

As part of the deal, Rockwell will acquire 10.6 million newly issued PTC shares for $ 94.50 per share, to become its third-biggest shareholder.

The per-share price represents a premium of 8.6 percent to software maker PTC’s close on Friday.

Leveraging Rockwell’s domain expertise with PTC’s technology will help companies to capitalize on the promise of industrial IoT, PTC Chief Executive Officer Jim Heppelmann said.

Rockwell Automation’s chairman and Chief Executive Officer Blake Moret will join PTC’s board after the deal closes, which is expected within the next two months, according to a joint statement.

Morgan Stanley & Co LLC was the financial adviser to PTC, while Goldman Sachs & Co LLC advised Rockwell.

Goodwin Procter LLP was PTC’s legal adviser to PTC, while Foley & Lardner LLP advised Rockwell.

Reporting by Ankit Ajmera in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta

Tech

This is How Small Business Owners Can Take Full Advantage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act

Tax time is no one"s favorite time of year. But for small business owners, this year"s filing deadline at least comes with the promise of better rates ahead: Many of the changes included in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed by Congress in December, are going into effect.

As entrepreneurs, we should expect to benefit--at least, temporarily--from the new tax plan. My company, Manta, conducted a poll in January and found that 83 percent of business owners anticipate their companies will be positively impacted by the changes. Nearly as many, 80 percent, said they support the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Some are already feeling the benefits of having more money in their pockets, according to another poll we conducted last month. 34 percent of small business owners said their business income had increased as a result of the tax reform, just three months into the year. 42 percent have already changed their budgeting or financial planning because of the new tax law.

It"s time to start preparing for the changes--if you haven"t already.

For the most part, the provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that benefit small businesses go into effect this tax year -- meaning they won"t impact the returns that are due this month. 

The 58 percent of small business owners who have not yet adjusted their budgets should get started, however. While that big refund check may be a year away, it"s not too early to plan accordingly and make sure you take full advantage of the potential savings. 

The first step is to review your company"s legal structure and determine how it will affect your taxes. One of the most important changes in the new tax law allows pass-through entities (such as S corporations and LLCs) to deduct up to 20 percent of their business income.

However, this doesn"t apply to certain professional services firms. Review your situation with a tax professional or attorney--you might be able to adjust your business structure to take advantage of this deduction. 

Make the most of your company"s tax savings.

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts allows businesses to immediately write off the full cost of new equipment and other property, instead of depreciating the expense over five or more years. The new law also protects these write-offs from being rescinded in the future. 

This is great news for business owners who want to invest in their growth. According to our polls, 28 percent of small business owners plan to use their tax savings to invest in new technology and 21 percent plan to open a new location or expand. The immediate write-off should make these investments (and your cash flow) much more manageable in the short term.

Just check with your tax advisor before making a major purchase--you could run into unforeseen obstacles. For example, the depreciation rules for "heavy" SUVs--those with a gross vehicle weight above 6,000 pounds--are different than for light trucks and vans. You want to be prepared for the potential impact on your taxes.

Streamline your expense tracking and tax prep.

Make sure you accurately track and document all business expenses. Our polls found that 21 percent of small business owners still use paper receipts to track expenses.

Think about that for a second. It"s messy and inefficient, and you risk losing receipts or miscategorizing expenses.

Hiring a pro is probably the best way to ensure that you take full advantage of the new deductions and stay on the right side of the law. The U.S. tax code is confounding to even the most experienced business owners--20 percent of poll respondents told us they didn"t understand all the deductions available to them. Whatever else Congress accomplished with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they definitely didn"t simplify things.

Use a mobile application or accounting software to scan and save digital copies of your receipts and categorize the expenses. Then, when tax time rolls around, you can output a well-organized report or import the data directly into your tax prep software. And if you use an outside accountant or tax preparer, they"ll greatly appreciate you providing a digitized expense report instead of handing over shoeboxes full of paper receipts.

Tech

In 6 Words, Elon Musk Explained Why So Many People Are Afraid to Take Risks and Achieve Greatness

This series examines the stories behind some of the best inspiring quotes of all time. Check out the full list: the best inspirational quotes for 2018.

The most powerful threat to greatness isn"t evil. It"s mediocrity.

Of all the colorful ways to articulate that truth, one of the best is what Elon Musk told Chris Anderson of Wired magazine, back in 2012.

They were talking about Musk"s space exploration company, SpaceX, which grew out of Musk"s "crazy idea to spur the national will" to travel to Mars--by first sending a private rocket to the red planet.

He tried to to slash the cost of his quixotic dream by buying Cold War Russian missiles to turn into interplanetary rockets. While negotiating that deal, he realized that it wasn"t lack of "national will" that held the U.S. back from exploring space.

Instead, it was a lack of affordable technology--and the high cost, he told Anderson, was the result of some "pretty silly things" in the aerospace industry, like using legacy rocket technology from the 1960s. 

Anderson: I"ve heard that the attitude is essentially that you can"t fly a component that hasn"t already flown.

Musk: Right, which is obviously a catch-22, right? There should be a Groucho Marx joke about that. So, yeah, there"s a tremendous bias against taking risks. Everyone is trying to optimize their ass-covering.

That"s the quote that I liked so much, especially those last six words: a "bias against risk," because everyone is "trying to optimize their ass-covering."

It"s funny--but also poignant. And, of course, it applies to a lot more than space exploration.

It applies to the vast majority of successful companies that get stuck producing legacy products--because they can"t risk that innovation might upset their own profit models.

It applies to the service providers that make a mockery of the word "service" (say for example, big airlines and utility companies)--because cost-cutting with crappy service maximizes shareholder value.

It applies also to temptations in our personal lives, and in the lives of those around us.

Think of the colleagues you know who hold onto uninspiring jobs for fear of going after the careers or entrepreneurial dreams they really want.

Or think of the friend you might have (I think most of us do), who stays in a lousy relationship because he or she is more afraid of being alone than of living with less than they deserve.

We"re all a little bit afraid of risk. Yet, each day represents a new chance and a new beginning. At the start of the year, that sense is especially acute. 

And sometimes we need a little inspiration to take the leap.

Whatever is the thing you"re afraid of trying--a new business, a new adventure, a new relationship--maybe now is the time to give it a try.

Cast aside your risk aversion. Be uncomfortable for a while as you try something new. Accept the chance that you"ll fail.

Don"t optimize your ass-covering. Instead, optimize your opportunities. And find your own mission to Mars.

Tech

Take These 7 Steps Now to Reach Password Perfection

Your passwords are a first line of defense against many internet ills, but few people actually treat them that way: Whether it’s leaning on lazy Star Wars references or repeating across all of your accounts—or both—everyone is guilty of multiple password sins. But while they’re an imperfect security solution to begin with, putting in your best effort will provide an immediate security boost.

Don’t think of the following tips as suggestions. Think of them as essentials, as important to your daily life as brushing your teeth or eating your vegetables. (Also, eat more vegetables.)

1. Use a password manager. A good password manager, like 1Password or LastPass, creates strong, unique passwords for all of your accounts. That means that if one of your passwords does get caught up in a data breach, criminals won"t have the keys to the rest of your online services. The best ones sync across desktop and mobile, and have autocomplete powers. Now, rather than having to memorize dozens of meticulously crafted passwords, you just have to remember one master key. How do you make it as robust as possible? Read on.

2. Go long. Despite what all those prompts for unique characters and uppercase letters might have you believe, length matters more than complexity. Once you get into the 12-15 character range, it becomes way harder for a hacker to brute force, much less guess, your password. One caveat: Don’t just string together pop culture references or use simple patterns. Mix it up! Live a little! A quick for instance: "g0be@r$ " does you way less favors than "chitown banana skinnydip."

3. Keep "em separated. If and when you do deploy those special characters—which, if you opt against a password manager, lots of input fields will force you to—try not to bunch them all together at the beginning or end. That’s what everyone else does, which means that’s what bad guys are looking for. Instead, space them out throughout your password to make the guesswork extra tricky.

4. Don’t change a thing. You know how your corporate IT manager keeps making you change your password every three months? Your corporate IT manager is wrong. The less often you change your password, the less likely you are to forget it, or to fall into patterns—like just changing a number at the end each time—that make them easier to crack.

5. Single-serve only. If you’re on the password manager train, you’re already all over this. But if you can’t be bothered, at the very least make sure that you don’t reuse passwords across different accounts. If you do, a retailer breach you have no control over could end up costing your banking password. See for yourself: The website Have I Been Pwned has nearly 5 billion compromised accounts on file—if yours is one of them, there’s a chance your favorite password might already be toast.

6. Don’t trust your browser. A convenient shortcut to remembering all those passwords, or getting a paid password manager account, is letting your browser remember them for you. You’ve seen the option yourself. You probably even use it on at least one site. Don’t! The option is convenient, but the underpinning security is often undocumented, and it doesn"t require that your password actually be, you know, good. If you need a free and easy option, go with a password manager like Dashlane instead of trusting everything to Chrome.

7. Add two-factor too. Hate to say it, but these days not even a password is enough. Many of the services you use today—social networks, banks, Google, and so on—offer an added layer of protection. It can come in the form of a code sent to your phone via SMS, or if you want to step it up, through software solutions like Google Authenticator or hardware like a YubiKey. SMS should be enough for most people; just know that like many entry level security precautions, it"s not perfect.

The Wired Guide to Digital Security

• More Tips for Civilians: One you master password tips, lock down your smartphone, keep yourself secure from phishers, know how to deal with getting doxed, and if you have kids, keep them safe online.

• Activist? Journalist? Politician? Consider Yourself a Target: Start by encrypting everything, sign up for Google Advanced Protection, take a tour of Tor, and deploy physical measures to increase your digital security.

• Professionals Are After You. Time to Get Serious: If you think they’re onto you, remove the mic from your devices, find bugs, and (worst case scenario) dive down the paranoia rabbithole.

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