The Swiss register showed Apple's Samplab purchase months before Apple was named
SITA, the information-technology cooperative owned by the air transport industry, announced in Geneva on 15 October 2026 that it has agreed to acquire Collins Aerospace Airport Solutions, the airport-technology unit of RTX's Collins Aerospace (self-service check-in kiosks, bag drop, biometric passenger verification, baggage tracking and airport operations software). Closing is expected in the first half of 2027, subject to regulatory approval.
Enact Intelligence of Zurich, founded in March 2026 to build robots that sense force and touch, raised USD 30 million in a pre-seed round from redalpine, Notion Capital and firstminute capital, announced on 22 October 2026. Nouscom of Basel closed a USD 135 million Series D, announced on 19 October 2026, to fund a registration trial of its cancer vaccine NOUS-209.
4Press-Reported Deals-20% WoW
584Distress Events-6% WoW
3Startup FundingCHF 145.2M converted
18Succession Signals-18% WoW
1041New Registrations+6% WoW
2369Board Changes-4% WoW
The register showed Apple's purchase in July. Apple bought assets of Samplab, a music-software start-up from Altstätten, in June. An EU filing named Apple on 19 October, but on 2 July the Swiss register had already published Samplab's new name, Quitten GmbH, and a new purpose: holding the proceeds of its software.
A Geneva cooperative buys its competitor from RTX. SITA, the IT supplier owned by the airline industry, agreed on 15 October to buy Collins Aerospace Airport Solutions: check-in kiosks, bag drop, biometrics and airport operations software, the same products SITA sells. Regulators will decide when it closes in 2027.
Large rounds for young companies. Enact Intelligence of Zurich, founded in March to build robots that feel force and touch, raised USD 30 million before its first product, with Yann LeCun among the angels. Nouscom of Basel closed a USD 135 million Series D for a cancer vaccine trial.
Signals worth a call. TSE Troller of Murgenthal, a maker of coating tools, replaced its local auditor with KPMG. Carbo-Link of Fehraltorf, a carbon-fibre maker, converted CHF 1.4 million of debt into shares at about CHF 1,780 each, a price on its equity that owners rarely publish.
How an asset sale shows up in the register before the buyer is named
When a buyer takes a company's assets and staff but not the company, the seller is left with a shell holding the cash. Samplab shows what that looks like in the Swiss register. On 2 July 2026, three and a half months before Apple's name appeared in an EU filing, the Altstätten start-up published a new name, Quitten GmbH, and a new purpose: instead of developing music software, it now holds assets, in particular income from that software. The app stopped working in September.
The pattern is not rare, but it is noisy. Since January 2026, 60 register notices combined a new company name with a switch to a holding purpose, and most of the recent ones are property companies or holdings of shares. The ones worth a buyer's attention are those where the old purpose was an operating business, such as software, engineering or a trade, and the new one holds income from it. That combination usually means the business has been sold and the owners kept the shell.
Pre-Deal Signals — moves that precede transactions
Oct 23
TSE Troller AGAG· Coating-industry equipment
Auditor moved from Straumann Treuhand to KPMG (published 23 October)
Auditor moved from Balmer-Etienne to Forvis Mazars (published 21 October), five months after moving its seat to Zurich and changing its conditional capital
Oct 23
Carbo-Link AGZH· Carbon-fibre structures
Share capital raised from CHF 309,100 to CHF 517,000 on 15 October, including CHF 1.41 million of debt converted into 790 shares (published 23 October)
Procurement Prints — public contract awards
Oct 21
Swiss Install GmbHBL
IWB, the Basel utility: a framework contract to lay district-heating pipes in Basel, CHF 18.3 million, the largest of three lots awarded the same day.
award 2 on our record · 2 tracked total · CHF 23M lifetime
CHF 18.3M
Oct 21
Equans Switzerland AG, Zweigniederlassung BaselBS
IWB, the Basel utility: the second lot of the same district-heating pipe framework, CHF 11.9 million.
2 public awards in2026 · 2 tracked total · CHF 12M lifetime
CHF 11.9M
Oct 21
Bilfinger Industrial Services GmbH
IWB, the Basel utility: the third district-heating pipe lot, CHF 10.0 million. The three lots total CHF 40.1 million.
3 public awards in2026 · 6 tracked total · CHF 30M lifetime
CHF 10.0M
Oct 21
ensec AGZH
City of Zurich IT department: a network security policy management system, CHF 8.9 million.
3 public awards in2026 · 3 tracked total · CHF 11M lifetime
CHF 8.9M
Oct 21
Meletta Strebel Architekten AGZH
City of Zurich building office: general planning for renovating and converting the Manegg school, CHF 5.3 million, subject to the credit being approved.
award 2 on our record · 2 tracked total · CHF 5M lifetime
CHF 5.3M
The Tape — 3 transactions
Press reported in the mediaReg commercial-register filing, value = net assets
Oct 15
PRESS
SITA← Collins Aerospace Airport Solutions
SITA, the airline-owned IT cooperative, announced in Geneva on 15 October that it will buy the airport-technology unit of RTX's Collins Aerospace: self-service check-in and bag drop, biometric passenger verification, baggage tracking and airport operations software. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027 after regulatory approval.
Samplab of Altstätten, registered in 2021, made a desktop app that turns recorded audio into editable notes for music producers. Apple bought certain of its assets and hired some of its staff in June, according to an EU Digital Markets Act filing reported on 19 October. The app stopped working in September, and the company is now Quitten GmbH, a holding company.
EQT offered EUR 46.50 a share in cash for Qiagen, the Dutch-registered molecular-testing group whose Swiss subsidiary is in Zug, with affiliates of ADIA and CPP Investments. The offer values Qiagen at about USD 12.1 billion including net debt, has the board's backing, and is expected to close in mid-2027.
Nouscom of Basel develops off-the-shelf cancer vaccines. The round funds one global registration trial of NOUS-209 in carriers of Lynch syndrome, an inherited cancer risk, for which the US FDA granted Fast Track status.
M Ventures and Revelation Partners (co-leads), Angelini, European Investment Bank, Neva SGR, existing investors including Versant, 5AM and EQT Life Sciences
Enact of Zurich, founded in March 2026 by Manuel Yves Galliker, builds robots that measure force and touch inside their motors. The twelve-person team plans to grow fivefold by the end of 2027 and put its first robots to work with industrial partners.
redalpine, Notion Capital, firstminute capital; angels Arthur Mensch, Yann LeCun, Andrew Lonsberry
Sonexos absorbs noise with a software-controlled layer of plasma, a technology licensed from EPFL, cutting up to 20 decibels in ventilation tests. The money takes it from prototypes to industrial products, with series production planned for early 2028.
Valquest Partners (lead), Bosch Ventures, industry angels
VISEMO SA en liquidation VD · Logistics IoT and software · est. 2025
bankruptcy
The Lausanne district court declared the Prilly company bankrupt on 16 October 2026, published 23 October. Registered in July 2025, VISEMO developed connected devices, software platforms and mobile apps to track and digitise supply chains and logistics operations. Its software and device designs are assets the liquidator can sell to a logistics-technology firm.
The Geneva court of first instance declared the Plan-les-Ouates company bankrupt on 5 October 2026, published 20 October. KEJAKO researched, developed and industrialised medical devices and sold them, and had its accounts audited until 2023. For a medical-technology firm, its development work, designs and any regulatory files are what the liquidator can sell.
ESAVA Sàrl en liquidation BE · E-liquid manufacturing
bankruptcy
The court declared the La Ferrière company bankrupt on 19 October 2026, published 23 October. ESAVA makes e-liquids for vaping, both under its own product lines and as white-label production for other brands, with custom flavour development and bottling. Its recipes, bottling equipment and white-label customers suit another e-liquid producer.
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Based on 5,997 SOGC/SHAB publications processed this week. M&A data sourced from Swiss commercial registry filings (0 SOGC), press-reported transactions via web intelligence (4 EXA), and startup funding from Startupticker, Tech.eu, and company disclosures (3 rounds). Company distress scoring based on proprietary multi-signal model across 113,000 Swiss companies. Register deal counts exclude merger and asset-transfer filings whose notice states that one owner held every share of both companies, and demergers. This week the register's three deal-type filings were Atelier First's merger into Garage First (related companies with the same name), a merger of two medical-research foundations and Sequotech's move from Delémont to Zurich, so no register sale between owners is listed. Press items rejected on review: Afinum X's investment in Ergon Informatik (Afinum became majority shareholder in January 2026; the item reported on 20 October restates it) and Wealthspire's purchase of Atlantic Swiss (no Swiss party). EQT's offer for Qiagen is listed because Qiagen's Swiss subsidiary is in Zug, but Qiagen N.V. is Dutch-registered. Pre-deal signals dropped on review: GEDREL (owned by 12 municipalities), Dussmann Service and Trend International Holding (auditor moves inside groups), and Bruker Switzerland, Sequotech and Plan-B NET Zero (purpose wording changes). Ronin Primeurs' bankruptcy was covered in W40, and ICF Isolations' first bankruptcy in W41. Production Resource Group's moratorium was extended by three months, a routine step. Forward radar is empty this week: the highest-scoring names showed only routine board changes. The 60 rename-and-holding notices in the story were counted in SHAB publications from 1 January to 23 October 2026. SITA agreed its purchase on 15 October; W42 missed it, so it is listed here with its announcement date.
ValIndex reads every SHAB filing the day it publishes, checks each merger notice for common ownership, and tracks succession, distress and ownership signals across Swiss companies. About ValIndex →
How to cite this issue
ValIndex Market Pulse, Week 43 (23 October 2026): “The Swiss register showed Apple's Samplab purchase months before Apple was named”. https://valindex.ch/en/pulse/2026-W43/
Covers commercial-register (SHAB) filings and announcements published from 19 October 2026 to 23 October 2026.
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