Gary Mintchell's Feed Forward

Emerson Electric Co. has acquired, through open market purchases, 49,998,079 shares of Chloride Group PLC, representing approximately 19 percent of the issued share capital of Chloride, at a price of 378.3 pence per share. The Chloride shares were purchased by Rutherfurd Acquisitions LTD, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Emerson, on July 2, 2010. As a result of this acquisition, Rutherfurd owns a total of 49,998,079 shares of Chloride representing approximately 19 percent of the issued share capital of Chloride. Detailed disclosure with respect to these purchases can be found here.

On June 29, 2010, Emerson announced a cash offer for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Chloride. Emerson and Chloride announced July1 that the board of directors of Chloride has resolved that it intends unanimously to recommend acceptance of the Offer. Under the terms set out by Emerson in the announcement of the Offer, Chloride shareholders will receive 375 pence in cash for each Chloride share. Chloride shareholders will also be entitled to receive the final dividend of 3.3 pence per share as proposed by the board of directors of Chloride on May 24, 2010. Emerson may, with the agreement of the board of directors and the Panel on Takeovers and Mergers, elect to implement the acquisition by way of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the UK Companies Act 2006. Any such scheme would be subject to terms no less favorable to Chloride shareholders, as applicable, than those which were set out in the Offer Announcement.

We previously reported that ABB was also interested in Chloride. In a statement on July 1, ABB announced it "has reviewed the offer announced by Emerson on 20 June 2010 and has decided not to match Emerson's offer" Added Joe Hogan, ABB chief executive officer, "While we still see considerable value in the combination of ABB and Chloride and have a high regard for the Chloride management team, we must take a disciplined approach when assessing potential acquisitions."

Honeywell announced June 28 it has completed the acquisition of Matrikon for approximately $139 million USD (approximately $144 million CAD). Matrikon will be integrated with the Advanced Solutions business of Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS). Matrikon's open connectivity in process control business, MatrikonOPC, will operate as a separate business entity within HPS.

"The Matrikon brands are outstanding additions to our technology portfolio," said Norm Gilsdorf, president of HPS, a business within Honeywell's Automation and Control Solutions group. "Combining our experienced teams and products will enable us to create stronger, enterprise-wide solutions that improve business performance for respective customers. In addition, the deal provides significant opportunity to grow within our existing customer bases in both mature and emerging markets around the world."

Based in Edmonton, Canada, Matrikon specializes in technology to manage production, optimize operations and monitor assets at industrial plants including oil and gas, refining, energy, power and mining companies. According to the release, Matrikon and HPS' products are highly complementary, specifically in the areas of asset management, production management, operations optimization, plant cyber security and data collection and visualization. In addition, Honeywell supports MatrikonOPC's commitment to vendor neutral open connectivity in process control (OPC), leading new technology development and helping people adopt open standards based solutions.

In an exclusive interview, Gilsdorf told me that the acquisition both gives HPS greater penetration within its current customer base while also providing entre into potentially new businesses. "Matrikon have customers where we're either not as strong or even not in, for example upstream, offshore or wellhead. It is also strong in mining and quite a bit of strength in asset management of heavy equipment in mines. It further has strength working with NERC-CIP in the utility industry." When Gilsdorf was running the UOP business for Honeywell prior to coming to HPS, he was interested in Matrikon. "At UOP, we were interested in their remote monitoring capability," he added.

Running MatrikonOPC as a separate business unit is not unusual within Honeywell, citing Tridium as an example. "We want it to be successful and grow," Gilsdorf added.

I asked about his UOP experience with the technology and engineering division of Honeywell Specialty Chemicals. He replied that there is a lot of personnel movement between the two companies. "Honeywell likes to do things like this," Gilsdorf said. He then referred to the recent announcement of the agreement between Honeywell and Shah Gas Development Project of the Abu Dhabi Gas Development Co. Ltd. which reflects the One Honeywell approach of the company.

In this project, Honeywell will provide Experion Process Knowledge Systems and Safety Manager technologies. These can be integrated to give personnel a complete view of process and safety information across the site. In addition to this core system, Honeywell will design, engineer and implement a broad array of new technologies and advanced applications that will help the plant operate as efficiently as possible from the first day of production. The project will include OneWireless networking to track key personnel and assets during both construction and operational phases. Operations staff will be equipped with wireless gas detectors that will transmit alerts when dangerous gases are detected.
 


This interesting release came in while I was in the air to EWR enroute to Shanghai. Dassault Systemes has announce intent to acquire the PLM sales channel from IBM.

Dassault Systemes signed an agreement under which it intends to acquire IBM sales and client support operations encompassing DS's product lifecycle management (PLM) software portfolio, as well as customer contracts and related assets, for approximately $600 million in cash.

DS and IBM plan to establish DS as an IBM Global Alliance Partner and expand their services partnership.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the first half of 2010, subject to the execution of local agreements and completion of regulatory processes and applicable labor relations requirements in various countries.

The companies expect to continue to jointly invest in developing, deploying and supporting client PLM environments, delivering integrated PLM solutions to their clients worldwide.