Schneider Electric, the French electrical products and automation company has purchased Juno Lighting. Schneider is know in the automation business as the owner of the Modicon brand of programmable controllers--although those have mostly been phased out in favor of the home-grown Telemacanique products. In the U.S., its face is presented by the famous old brand, Square D. At one time Square D had an automation segment, but it is mostly focused on power products--primarily switchgear and similar products.
The announcement provides a couple of clues about thinking at Square D. First, the announcement promotes the strength of adding to the Square D distribution channel. I worked in distribution for a while and have some insights into it. Square D in Ohio has a distributor on almost every corner, it seems. Lima, Ohio, a city of about 40,000, has at least four Square D distributors. One wonders why they need another. Seems like that competition would really drive down prices and profits.
Also, Dave Petratis, who was identified to me as President of Square D and Schneider North America, is identified in the press release as Executive Vice President, comments that this strengthens the company in its core business of commercial, residential and retail construction.
So, is Schneider/Square D going the way of Cutler-Hammer? That latter company had an automation component, but who has heard anything about that recently (for at least three years). I don't even hear about it's PanelMate line of operator interface anymore. Similarly, I have heard very little about Schneider's automation business lately. The last was Wes Iversen's news about the company's push into services. As a sidelight to that conference, Wes mentioned to me that the company is bringing back the Modicon name in the US and in Germany. Guess maybe a French name isn't as recognizable?
What concerns me is that perhaps we're losing another option in the automation supplier stable. Is business really that bad? Is return on investment challenging? What's up?
6:28:40 AM 
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