A Busy Week in Acquisitions

This week has seen a good number of large and small acquisitions in the distribution and manufacturing world, along with an interesting move by cutting-tool supplier Kennametal, a change in the tech landscape, and a not-often-seen move by industrial/PVF distributors McJunkin and Red Man Tool and Supply.

McJunkin and Red Man have announced a "merger of equals," which means they will form one company with close to $3 billion in annual sales, but the CEOs will share leadership and the new company will have two headquarters (story).

According to Investopedia, a site I frequent, a merger of equals is when two firms, "often of about the same size, agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated." Both companies' stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. Example: when Daimler-Benz and Chrysler merged and became DaimlerChrysler. Actual mergers of equals don't happen very often. "Usually one company will buy another and, as part of the deal's terms, simply allow the acquired firm to proclaim that the action is a merger of equals, even if it's technically an acquisition," according to the Web site.

That's not to say that the McJunkin-Red Man merger isn't a true merger of equals. Very few details are yet available on the deal. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Other recent deals: Leading HVAC distributor Watsco will buy the $240 million ACR Group(story); a Sonepar subsidiary is buying Ralph Pill Electric Supply, started by a Lithuanian immigrant back in 1919 and still in the family (story); and a private equity firm is buying Dutch chemicals distributor Univar for $2 billion (story). And, big news in the distribution technology arena, software provider Activant has agreed to buy Intuit Eclipse for $100 million (story). Go to MDM's breaking news page for more headlines.