Manufacturer News: 1.18.2011

Acquisitions, Partnerships & Other Deals

ABB invests in ECOtality—ABB said it would put $10 million into ECOtality, a privately owned company in the EV charging station business. Read GreentechMedia’s analysis here.

Airmaster Fan changes hands—Robert LaZebnik, owner of Airmaster Fan Company, has sold it to Richard Stone, who was president and CEO.

CommScope

• Sale done—shareholders approved the sale of CommScope to The Carlyle Group for $31.50/share. The meeting was held Dec. 30. On Jan. 14, Carlyle said the acquisition was closed (total cost: $3.9 billion). CommScope is now a private company.
• Notes sold—just before the above-noted sale was completed, CommScope sold $1.5 billion in eight-year notes in the private placement market.
• Wireless unit sold—CommScope on Jan. 10 sold its wireless test and measurement product line to Anite plc, which has a Network Testing business based in Oulu, Finland. The wireless test line came to CommScope when it bought Andrew.
• Suit settled—on Jan. 12, CommScope said it had settled a patent infringement lawsuit that it bought against BoreFlex Industries of Mountain Grove, Mo. The Charlotte Business Journal said that “BoreFlex has taken a royalty-bearing license” on the patent involved in the suit.

General Electric

• Lineage Power Holdings—GE Energy has acquired this company from The Gores Group. Lineage is described as “a leading global provider of high-efficient power conversion infrastructure technology and services for the telecommunications and datacenter industries.” The acquired company’s 2010 revenues were given as $450 million; GE Energy said the value of what it paid was $520 million.
• SmartSignal—GE Intelligent Platforms has acquired SmartSignal (Lisle. Ill.), which is an analytics software company that specializes in “providing remote monitoring and diagnostics solutions to the power generation, oil and gas, and other industrial sectors,” according to CSEmag.com.  The acquired company was privately owned.

Legrand buys Electrorack—Legrand North America has acquired Electrorack Products of Anaheim, Calif. The acquirer said Electrorack’s product range is an “excellent fit with that of Ortronics.”

Leviton & HARMAN—“a renewed and expanded partnership” has been inked by HARMAN International and Leviton. HARMAN will continue to develop an exclusive line of speakers (“the Leviton Architectural Edition”).

Motorola buys 4Home—what did it buy? CE Pro answers the question here.

Philips buys Optimum—A Jan. 5 report noted that Philips now owns Optimum Lighting, a maker of energy-efficient fixtures. Sales price: face down.

PowerSecure to sell—the company (stock symbol POWR) said it will sell its Southern Flow subsidiary to Zedi for $15.55 million, enabling PowerSecure to “focus on its core Energy and Smart Grid Solutions business.”

Siemens—

• CJSC DeltaLeasing—Siemens will buy this company from the U.S. Russia Investment Fund. CJSC is “a Russia-based commercial financing company,” according to reports.
• PositiveID Corp. deal—Siemens has signed an agreement with PositiveID, which grants the latter rights to use some of Siemens “key intellectual property.”
• Sells IT unit—Atos Origin will pay $1.1 billion to Siemens to buy its IT solutions and services business. Additionally, Siemens will retain a 15% Stake in Atos for some future period.
• Statoil deal—Siemens has signed a “technology development cooperation agreement initially focused on wind power, subsea technology, electrical engineering, and energy efficiency” with Statoil of Norway.

Stanley buys—Sonitrol of Oklahoma City and Sonitrol of Tulsa, Okla., are now owned by Stanley Convergent Security Solutions.

Lighting Update

Acuity Brands—Q1, which ended Nov. 30, 2010, had sales of $425 million, up 8.5% compared with one year earlier. From Vern Nagel, chairman, president, and CEO: “This was the third quarter in a row where we achieved unit volume growth in an environment where nonresidential construction continued to decline.” Looking forward, Nagel noted that, “we expect that the controls portion of the market will continue to significantly outpace the growth of luminaires.”

BULBRITE—a special ceremony to celebrate this company’s 40^th anniversary is scheduled for Jan. 21 at Showroom No. 3351 at the Dallas Trade Mart.

Carmanah Technologies—this Canadian maker of solar and LED products said it was suing Lightech Electronic Industries of Israel, which it had earlier agreed to buy. Carmanah canceled the deal in November and is now seeking $625,00 (U.S.) plus interest and costs. According to the Times Colonist (Jan. 7), “the money Carmanah is seeking represents an advance payment for Lightech.”

Columbia Lighting—now offers 7,751 products in its 10-day quick-ship program.

Cree—claimed “higher flux options plus new, longer lifetime estimates plus higher CRI options” for “optimized” versions of its indoor LED fixtures.

GE/Starbucks—a press release noted that Starbucks “recently finished replacing nearly all of its incandescent and halogen lighting with LED lighting during a two-year rollout.” The product used is from GE.

Hi Score Corp.—this company, with stock traded on the Pink Sheets, issued a Dec. 21 release noting that it had supplied T5 Retrofit Kits to Trump Towers in Sunny Isles, Fla.

LEDtronics—this company, based in Torrance, Calif., supplied LED bulbs used in the five-year restoration of the “historic Rotunda building” of the L.A. County Natural History Museum.

Lighting Science Group—according to the Dec. 15 Orlando Sentinel, the company was ready to introduce this month (January 2011) “a 60W LED bulb it says will cost less than $30, last 20 years or more, and use 75% less electricity. And it’s made in Satellite Beach, Fla., not China.”

LVX—this company, which offers LED lighting to buyers on a lease, reportedly obtained a deal with the city of St. Cloud, Minn. See video on ElectricTV.net.

NGL Supply—Next Generation Lighting Supply, which makes LED products, said it received ETL certification for its PAR 20 and GU 10 LED lamp products.

Nora Lighting—the company and its employees worked to make the holidays a little brighter at the Hillview Acres Children’s Home (China, Calif.), with a donation turned over just before festivities began. More than 2,500 young people reportedly have called Hillview Acres their home since 1929.

Philips Lumileds—now is producing LEDs on 150-millimeter-diameter wafers, according to LEDs Magazine, increasing production capacity.

Progress Lighting—the company’s plans for its booth at the NAHB International Builders’ Show were written up (here).

SavWatt USA—according to the Baltimore Business Journal, this local (to the paper) company, which makes LED lighting, has hired 30 people, may need 170 more before the year ends—and may end up with as many as 500 when fully geared up. Apparently, SavWatt has relocated LED production from China to Baltimore.

US Lighting Tech—said on Jan. 6 that it had shipped the unit No. 100,000 of its Jersey Series Cobrahead—to Public Service and Enterprise Group of New Jersey. That volume shipped in “just under 12 months.” USLT, of Irvine, Calif., makes induction lighting.