After almost a year of rumor and speculation, and over 5 months of waiting for the official announcement, it is now official. As of December 31, Brooks Instrument has a new home.
But here's an important note. In the to-be-published 2008 Readers' Choice Awards, Brooks products won three categories that, because of legal reasons when the issue was sent to the printer (i.e., before the sale closed) are still labeled as Emerson Process Management. If the same products win next year, of course, they'll be Brooks Instrument listings. And frankly, that's fair. In all of 2007, Brooks was an Emerson company, since as you can see below, the sale closed on December 31.
Here's the official press release:
Emerson Sells Brooks Instrument to American Industrial Partners ST. LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Emerson (NYSE:EMR) today announced it sold its Brooks Instrument unit on December 31, 2007, to American Industrial Partners Capital Fund IV, L.P. ("AIP") for approximately $100 million in cash. AIP is a private equity investment firm that applies an operational approach to building and improving middle-market companies. Brooks, headquartered in Hatfield, PA, provides flow measurement and control devices to the low flow application market, and principally serves the chemical and semiconductor industries. Its sales in fiscal 2007 were approximately $90 million. "Brooks Instrument has performed well for Emerson," said David N. Farr, chairman, CEO and president. "However, we believe Brooks' alignment within AIP's business provides the right synergy going forward for both companies."The sale of Brooks is representative of Emerson's ongoing strategy to manage its business mix toward high-growth, high-return businesses that are strategic to its entire portfolio. Over the past 18 months, Emerson sold several small businesses which included its Western Forge hand tool unit and Buehler materials testing business, and in recent weeks sold its joint venture interest in Industrial Motion Control (IMC). Emerson also made a number of strategic acquisitions in the past year. Most recently, Emerson in September agreed to acquire Motorola's Embedded Communications Computing (ECC) business for $350 million. That transaction also closed on Dec. 31.
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