Aveva agrees £3-bn software deal with Schneider

France' s Sch enid er Electric will take a 60 percent stake in Britain' s Ave va after the pair agreed to combine at the third time of asking to create a software business worth about £3 billion ($3.9 billion ). Jean-Pascal Tricoire, chairman and CEO of Schneider Electric, said the combined company would be better placed to serve a wide range of industries and its enhanced capacity would also benefit investors. Completion of the deal, due around the end of theyear, will mark the end of independence for the last $1 billion plus tech company founded in the university city of Cambridge, an area known as "Silicon Fen".