Horizon Solutions, Rochester, N.Y., has acquired Teknikor Energy Solutions, LLC (formerly Action Energy), a turnkey provider of energy-efficient power and mechanical energy solutions based in Fall River, Mass. This addition to Horizon Solutions’ Energy Services team follows its 2008 acquisition of Lighting Resource Management, a lighting energy services company based out of Newburyport, Mass. Horizon was ranked #56 on EW’s listing of the largest electrical distributors with $115.8 million in sales, 223 employees and seven locations.
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Archive for the ‘Mergers & Acquisitions’ Category
Horizon Solutions adds to energy services arsenal with acquisition of Teknikor
Sonepar USA Acquires California-based Independent Electric Supply
In one of the largest acquisitions in recent years, Sonepar USA, Philadelphia, has acquired Independent Electric Supply (IES), San Carlos, Calif. The deal gives Sonepar a solid footprint in California, one of the few major markets in the United States in which it did not have a major presence. Founded in 1976, Independent Electric Supply has 24 branches in the Northern California, the San Francisco Bay area, the Golden State’s Central Valley, Central Coast, Southern California, and in Tempe, Ariz. IES also operates two specialty division houses: Independent Power System (IPS) and Independent Utility Supply (IUS). The company will continue to operate under the leadership of Ron Snow, CEO, and Tom Massip, president.
Massip said in the press release announcing the acquisition, “It’s a great opportunity for our employees to become a part of a vigorous, growth-oriented organization. As is a characteristic of all acquisitions Sonepar has made over the years, we will continue to operate and market ourselves with our existing management team in place and will remain known in the markets we have served for 35-plus years as Independent Electric Supply.”
Dave Gabriel, CEO of Sonepar USA, said in that press release, “This strategic acquisition provides an opportunity for Sonepar USA to expand its presence through one of the strongest regional distributors in the California market. Independent Electric Supply is a company whose organization and employee base exemplifies Sonepar’s most critical characteristics of a customer-centric organization with strong local leadership and local brands.”
Electrical Wholesaling’s most recent Top 200 listing ranks Sonepar as the largest electrical distributor in North America, with $5.28 billion in 2010 sales and pegs Independent Electric Supply in the #18 spot with $373 million in 2010 sales. Independent Electric Supply had been one of the largest independent distributors in the Affiliated Distributors buying/marketing group.
3E acquires City Electric Supply of Iowa City
Electrical Engineering & Equipment Company (3E), Windsor Heights, Iowa, has acquired City Electric Supply, Iowa City, Iowa. 3E now has 15 locations throughout Iowa and Nebraska with the acquisition. Over the past few years, 3E has been expanding quickly in its market with a mix of acquisitions and start-ups and is now one of the 50 largest electrical distributors in the United States, according to Electrical Wholesaling.
City Electric Supply, which is an independent company and has no relation to British-owned City Electric Supply Inc., Orlando, was established in 1954 and founded by Frank Boyd and John Rummelhart Sr. They were both plumbers by trade but recognized the need for an electrical supply business in Iowa City. They also managed and operated a plumbing supply business, Contractor Tool and Supply.
Eventually, the two partners decided to split the businesses. The Boyd family took the electrical supply side and the Rummelhart’s took the plumbing. Frank Boyd’s son Bob managed City Electric Supply for nearly 30 years until the loss of his eyesight 14 years ago. It was at that time they hired current General Manager Rich VeDepo. Bob Boyd’s son, Kelly Boyd, is president of the independent manufacturers’ rep firm, ElectroRep, Sausalito, Calif., and is the winner of EW’s 2011 GEM Rising Star Award for reps. He is also a past-chairman of the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA).
Cooper Industries expands explosion-proof and hazardous location business with acquisition
Cooper Industries plc has acquired Gitiesse, an Italy-based, privately owned manufacturer of marine and oil and gas communications systems. Gitiesse specializes in the manufacture of digital integrated multimedia communications systems (IMCOS) for vessels worldwide. Gitiesse will become part of the Cooper Safety division of Cooper Industries. It’s the third acquisition Cooper has made in its explosion-proof harsh and hazardous environment platform within the last year.
“Gitiesse represents a strategic fit with Cooper Safety’s existing offering of MEDC explosion-proof beacons and sounders, Hernis CCTV and Cooper Crouse-Hinds’ global portfolio of harsh and hazardous instrumentation solutions,” said Cooper Industries Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Kirk Hachigian. “This acquisition supports our globalization initiative, as Gitiesse has a significant world-wide presence in the marine market, including strong positions in both Europe and Asia. Additionally, Gitiesse’s products complement the solutions Cooper Safety, Cooper Crouse Hinds and Cooper B-Line are able to jointly bring to our global oil & gas customers.” Details
Rockwell Automation acquires European provider of repair & services for automation products
Rockwell Automation Inc., Milwaukee, has acquired U.K.-based Lektronix, a provider of industrial automaion repairs and services in Europe and Asia. The company services and repairs industrial automation products such as programmable logic controllers (PLC), electric motor drives, industrial computers and computerized numerical control (CNC) equipment. Lektronix has 290 employees, 11 facilities and eight repair centers in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia.
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Landis+Gyr named as acquisition target in Reuters report
Manufacturers of equipment for the smart grid are in the acquisition spotlight these days, and this Reuters report says Toshiba, GE, ABB, Honeywell and several private equity firms are interested in acquiring the smart meter business of Landis+Gyr.
Coleman Cable continues buying spree
Coleman Cable, Waukegan, Ill., has been on a buying spree of late, and announced two more acquisitions today. The wire and cable company acquired the assets of First Capitol Wire & Cable and Continental Wire & Cable, both based in York, Pa., for a total purchase price of $7.15 million in cash. The two companies make industrial wire and cable with combined revenues of about $10 million in 2010. First Capitol’s lineup includes high-temperature cables used in OEM appliances and industrial and commercial applications.
More ERP consolidation: Infor buys Lawson Software
GGC Software Holdings, Inc., an affiliate of distribution enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider Infor and Golden Gate Capital, announced an agreement to acquire Lawson Software, St. Paul, Minn. In a release, Infor and GGC said the combined suite of Infor and Lawson “will create a unique set of industry-specific applications serving more than 75,000 customers and a global leader in verticals such as manufacturing, health care, distribution, public sector, and hospitality.”
The deal has been in the works for awhile, but the announcement follows news earlier this month that rival distribution software provider Activant was being rolled together with Epicor by private equity Apax Partners.
“Infor and Lawson will create a rich, integrated enterprise application suite. After the transaction closes, we plan to integrate many of the applications as soon after closing as possible, facilitated by a standards-based approach and the fact that both companies’ applications are already service-enabled. We also plan to innovate and change how customers deploy, use, and upgrade enterprise applications. We have a long list of ideas to improve the customer experience and deliver value through a singular focus on enterprise applications, accelerated investment, and a strong incentive to challenge convention,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor.
Infor’s manufacturing, supply chain, product lifecycle, workforce and asset management products will be combined with Lawson’s enterprise financials and human resources products to “improve business process flows and reduce integration costs via single sign-on, common look-and-feel and seamless navigation across composite applications deployed on-premise and in the cloud,” said the Infor release.
Minarik acquires Utah automation distributor
Kaman Industrial Technologies Corp., Windsor, Conn., says its subsidiary, Minarik Corp., Glendale, Calif., has acquired the assets of Automation Technology, Inc. with locations in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Boise, Idaho. Kaman said in a press release that Automation Technology is a strong motion control distributor in the Intermountain and Pacific Northwest trading areas and will increase Minarik’s leading position in those markets and add to its locations in Portland, Seattle and Denver. Kamanm which runs nearly 200 branches, distribution centers and customer service centers across the U. S., Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico, acquired Minarik last year. Details
Bloomberg reports Schneider stock slides on rumors of Tyco acquisition
Plenty of chatter out there right now about Schneider’s alleged interest in purchasing Tyco, and this Bloomberg post says it may take some time for the company’s shareholders to digest the potential benefit of the possible acquisition. The Bloomberg report said, “Schneider shareholders lost $1.7 billion on the day the company’s preliminary discussions with Tyco became known. The stock continued its descent the following day, until Schneider intervened on April 13 with a statement that the company, based near Paris, is ‘not currently’ in takeover talks with Tyco.”