Industrial software firm Invensys has agreed a £3.4billion takeover by France’s Schneider Electric.
The deal, which must be approved by shareholders, will bring together 16,000 employees at Invensys and Schneider’s 140,000 staff, including a combined UK workforce of more than 4,600.
But Schneider warned of possible job losses as it revealed plans for annual cost savings of around £122million.
It said there was potential to cut costs in corporate and support functions where there was overlap.
It also signalled plans to offload non-core divisions of Invensys, which employs more than 1,100 people in the UK.