Saturday, July 1, 2006

Molex to buy Woodhead Molex Inc., looking to expand into the industrial cable and connection market, is buying Woodhead Industries. The price is $19.25 per share, computing to a total of about $256 million. 3:28:53 PM    comment []

Rockwell to sell some businesses Saw another news item while I was on vacation. Rockwell Automation has placed its power generation products business on the block. This includes the Dodge line of power transmission and Reliance motors. Significantly not included in the sale is the Reliance drive systems business. I'm not surprised with this development. These products never really fit the rest of the product line, plus the distribution channels are different. On the other hand, the drive systems product line gave Rockwell an entre into some businesses that were previously out of possibility--steel rolling lines, pulp and paper and the like. The real question is--what will it do with the cash? 3:16:46 PM    comment []

Blogger objectivity I just spotted this article from CNET's Rafe Needleman about a company that pays bloggers for product mentions. Problem develops if the blogger does not reveal that this is a paid placement (ad) and makes it sound like a pure recommendation. Got me thinking about trade journal editors. You should know that sometimes the companies pay for our hotel rooms when we go to the conference. Honeywell just did when I went to Phoenix the beginning of June, but on the other hand, GE Fanuc did not when I went to its conference and National Instruments has decided not to pay for our hotel rooms during NI Week in August. No one that I know writes anything differently because of that. In fact, these trips are expensive and most magazines have constrained travel budgets. Editors must live within budgets, but it's the publishers and business managers who really care about the cost. With the proliferation of user conferences and the devaluation of trade shows, we find ourselves traveling 2-3 times a month rather than every two months or so. It certainly helps us gather news and background information to be at these events. That makes for better overall coverage of the industry. But it is getting to be very expensive and physically challenging. So, while editors don't receive compensation from the companies we cover, sometimes our companies receive a little relief from travel expenes. You should know that. As we try to maintain objectivity in the face of being totally submersed in one company's event, you could imagine the chagrin we (the industry editors) felt when one of our colleagues allowed himself to be video recorded promoting Honeywell for display during the recent users conference. So Walt, how does it feel to be a star? I always say that I never met a microphone I didn't like. But that may be one microphone I'd stay away from. I'm a promoter of the industry--not individual companies one over the other. How to kill blogs: PayPerPost.com. Blog: Just saw this on TechCrunch (referencing a BusinessWeek article): PayPerPost is a new system that pays bloggers a bounty... [CNET News.com] 2:13:28 PM    comment []