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Monday, July 14, 2008 |
Schneider Electric took a minority position in motion control and automation supplier and packaging machinery specialist Elau in 2004 and completed acquisition in May 2005. In a recent press release, it noted that under CEO Thomas Cord, Elau operating as an independent subsidiary increased sales from 40 million â[not equal]¬ in 2004 to 63 million â[not equal]¬ in 2007. But Schneider felt that future growth in the sector required a new structure and new leadership. The company will now be part of the company's Packaging Automation Center of Excellence.
As of July 1, Norbert Gauss has succeeded to the position of CEO of the new organization. He previously was CEO of Berger Lahr, now known as Schneider Electric Motion, since 2005. There was no word on the Elau global marketing organization headquartered outside Chicago, IL. I'm sure I'll have more on the depths of the reorganization soon.
4:04:56 PM 
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Thanks to ARC Advisory Group's Harry Forbes for pointing out that the parts of GE Industrial that we all know and love are NOT part of the proposed spin off from GE. So, maybe Jim Pinto's latest analysis that GE could be a player for Rockwell Automation isn't so far fetched. Jim's latest newsletter renews his obsession with Rockwell's need to be sold. He considers it an underperformer and compares (with the helpful analysis of Andrew Bond) stock price trends of "major automation" players. I think a problem with his analysis is that many, actually most, of the companies are not solely automation players. Automation may be a significant component of some, and less significant for others. Emerson has many divisions. Honeywell even more. Siemens is in several industries. Even comparing ABB with Rockwell is not apples to apples.
If you're looking for the quick hit stock price bonanza, then looking at industrial in general and automation in particular is probably a waste of time. Better to invest in the startups pre-IPO and pre-purchase and reap the dividend with a sale. Or--if you can guess better than anyone so far--try to guess when Yahoo! will be sold to Microsoft and for how much :-) In this bear market, not sure where the huge payoff is -- but I have been assured that my broker is on it.
1:23:27 PM
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I see that Anheuser-Busch has apparently agreed to a buy out by InBev creating the world's largest brewery company. From the automation perspective, I'd make a comparison to SAB Miller. I've had several conversations with corporate engineering managers at the latter company. Their challenge is to get all the various control and information systems talking with each other and gradually standardizing information and contol. They find ISA95 to be a valuable tool in that effort. This new creation could be an interesting challenge and opportunity for both the engineers involved--and for their current suppliers who will undoubtedly be jockeying for position.
10:32:50 AM
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© Copyright 2008 Gary Mintchell.
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