Sandy Cutler, Eaton's chairman and CEO, said the company's fourth-quarter net income YTY was stronger than anticipated. Net income was $211 million compared to $163 million in 2008, an increase of 29 percent. Sales in the quarter were $3.1 billion, 10 percent below the same period in 2008. For the full year 2009, sales were $11.9 billion, 23 percent less than 2008. Net income was $383 million, a decrease of 64 percent over 2008,
"We had a strong fourth quarter, with earnings considerably higher than our guidance at the start of the quarter due principally to improved operating performance,” he said. “As we anticipated, our markets improved very modestly in the fourth quarter, reflecting a continuation of the slow global economic recovery.
He sees modest growth in 2010. "We estimate our markets for all of 2010 will grow 5 percent, and we expect to outgrow our end markets in 2010 by approximately $300 million," said Cutler. "We also expect approximately $450 million of growth from foreign exchange. In total, we anticipate our revenues in 2010 will likely grow by 11 percent compared to 2009. Details
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Jim Lucy Blog
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.