Acquisitions and divestments
In one of Eaton's largest acquisitions, the company purchased the Westinghouse Distribution and Controls Business Unit in 1994.[10] The acquisition included all of the Westinghouse electrical distribution and control product business and also included stipulations that the Westinghouse name cannot be used by anyone else on these types of products for years. Today, Eaton Electrical manufactures electrical distribution and control products branded "Eaton" or "Cutler-Hammer", which can replace Westinghouse products in commercial and industrial applications.
Eaton spun off its semiconductor manufacturing equipment business as Axcelis Technologies in 2000.
In 2003, Eaton's Electrical Distribution and Control business (formerly known as Cutler-Hammer) acquired the electrical division of Delta plc. This acquisition brought Delta's brands Holec, MEM, Tabula, Bill and Elek under the Eaton nameplate[11] with the previous Westinghouse divisions and gave the company manufacturing facilities to meet IEC standards, one of the steps to become a global company and developing a worldwide standard.
Soon after this acquisition, Eaton entered a joint venture with Caterpillar Inc. and purchased 51% of I & S operations, now known as Intelligent Switchgear Organization, LLC.[12] This was followed in 2004 by the acquisition of Powerware.[13] The Powerware brand is known for the design and production of medium to large Uninterruptible Power System (UPS) devices. After several years of co-branding UPS products "Eaton|Powerware" the company is switching to the single brand Eaton for all UPS products including; BladeUPS, 9355, 9390, 9395, and 9E.
In 2006, Eaton entered the data center power distribution market. Initial products were internally developed PDU's and RPP's under the Powerware brand and included the PowerXpert metering system. A Powerware brand Static Transfer Switch was added to the portfolio through a brand-label relationship with Cyberex. To complete the power distribution portfolio Eaton released a line of rack power distribution products under its Powerware brand called. It acquired Aphel Technologies Ltd., a manufacturer of power distribution product for data centers based in Coventry, UK.[14] Shortly after, it added Pulizzi Engineering Inc., a manufacturer of mission critical power distribution based in Santa Ana, California.[15] In late 2007, it acquired the MGE Office Protection Systems division of Schneider Electric, as a result of Schneider's acquisition of APC. A Taiwanese manufacturer, Phoenixtec, was also acquired giving the company the highest share in the Chinese single-phase UPS market.[16]
On 21 May 2012, Eaton announced that it had agreed to purchase Ireland-based Cooper Industries in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $11.46 billion. The new company is called Eaton Corporation plc and is incorporated in Ireland. Then-Chairman and CEO of Eaton Alexander Cutler headed the new corporation. Cooper shareholders received $39.15 in cash and 0.77479 of a share in the newly created company for each Cooper share held. This is worth $72 per share based on Eaton's closing share price of $42.40 on 18 May 2012, and is 29% above Cooper's closing stock price.[17] Eaton Corporation plc completed its acquisition of Cooper Industries on 30 Nov 2012. The $13 billion acquisition of Cooper (US$5.4B Sales revenue (2011)), became the largest in Eaton's (US$16B Sales Revenue (2011)) 101-year history.[18]
On 17 Mar 2021, Eaton completed the acquisition of Tripp Lite for $1.65 billion. President and COO of Electrical Sector, Eaton Uday Yadav said "The acquisition of Tripp Lite will enhance the breadth of our edge computing and distributed IT product portfolio and expand our single-phase UPS business." The acquisition will further Eaton's access to the consumer market in which Tripp Lite has a strong position.[19]
Eaton's hydraulics business, manufacturing systems and components for the agriculture, construction, mining, forestry, utility, material handling, machine tools, molding, power generation, primary metals, and oil and gas markets, was acquired by Danfoss in August 2021 for $3.3 billion.[20]
