UK engineering firm Invensys has confirmed it has received a takeover offer from France's Schneider Electric.
The board said it was likely to accept Schneider's offer of 505p per share, valuing the company at £3.3bn.
The statement, came after news of the talks emerged on Thursday, and sets the regulatory clock ticking, with Schneider now required to make a formal offer by 8 August.
Schneider said a deal would help it develop its robotics business.
The "industry automation sector" involves the construction of robots used in manufacturing and, increasingly, the service sector to replace human employees.
The mooted 505p offer price is almost 15% above the 440p level at which Invensys' shares finished trading on Thursday, and is split between 319p in cash and 186p in shares.
The company's share price fell back last year, after it cut profits due to over-running costs on a series of nuclear power stations it was constructing in China, and after separate takeover talks with Emerson of the US fell through.
However, its shares have steadily rallied since November, doubling from a low of 220p.
In May, the company returned £625m in cash to shareholders after selling off its rail division - which, among other things, is building a new high-speed link in Saudi Arabia with Ave of Spain - to Siemens of Germany.
Source: BBC News - Business http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23282705#sa-ns_mchannel=rss&ns_source=PublicRSS20-sa
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