Latest from Mag

Plenty of executive appointments over the past two weeks. Here’s Electrical Marketing’s expanded coverage of personnel changes in the electrical market.
Dec. 21, 2012
Wire man John Pasqual and lighting rep Jack Melnick
Dec. 21, 2012
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Electrical product prices remained on their flat trend, showing no change from October and little change in almost all major product categories.
Dec. 21, 2012
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Privately-owned housing starts in November were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 861,000, 3% below the revised October estimate, but 21.6% above the Nov. 2011 rate.
Dec. 21, 2012
Veteran reps form new agency in Raleigh; WinWholesale buys Lloyd Graves in Texas; United Electric Supply expands through acquisition; and more.
Dec. 21, 2012
W.W. Grainger Inc., Lake Forest, Ill., announced plans to purchase Techni-Tool Inc., Worcester, Pa., a 200-plus employee distributor supplying customers in the cable television...
Dec. 21, 2012
Kaman Industrial Technologies (KIT), the industrial distribution business Kaman Corp., Bloomfield, Conn., has built up in recent acquisitions of Minarik, Zeller Electric and others...
Dec. 21, 2012
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg offered an update on the city’s plans to renovate its infrastructure to withstand future storms.
Dec. 7, 2012

Around the Industry

Schneider stock slides on rumors of Tyco acquisition There's been plenty of chatter over the past two weeks about Schneider Electric's alleged interest
April 22, 2011
2 min read

Schneider stock slides on rumors of Tyco acquisition

There's been plenty of chatter over the past two weeks about Schneider Electric's alleged interest in purchasing Tyco International in a deal that would be in the neighborhood of $30 billion and rank as the largest industrial acquisition ever by a European company. Bloomberg has been the primary source for the rumors, and the market's response hit the value of Schneider shares hard. 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.” Tyco's largest operation is its ADT security unit. It split off the connector business familiar to the electrical industry (formerly AMP) in a separate company, now called TE Connectivity, in 2007 following an accounting scandal.

Philips rolls out an EISA-compliant incandescent lamp

Philips Lighting, Somerset, N.J., caught the buzz created by Earth Day this year to announce a new range of energy-efficient incandescent lamps under the EcoVantage line offering the same shape, light quality and dimmability as traditional incandescent lamps but with energy savings that meet the requirements of the Energy Independence and Security Act (EISA) of 2007. Philips pulled off the trick by using halogen technology encased in the familiar Edison globe. The result is an energy savings of at least 28 percent, with a 40W equivalent pulling only 29W, 60W equivalent at 43W and 100W equivalent at 72W. Home Depot scored an exclusive, and will be the only place consumers can buy the EcoVantage bulbs. Philips didn't say how long that exclusive will last.

B.L Robinson to take on Van Meter name at Burlington, Iowa, location

A report from Iowa's Hawk Eye website says B.L. Robinson Electric Supply Co., Burlington, Iowa, has taken on the Van Meter Industrial name, 14 years after the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based Van Meter purchased the company. The report said the branch will start carrying Rockwell Automation products, as do Van Meter's other locations, and will stop carrying Square D products as of April 25.