How deep is the Rockwell commitment to the process industries?

Oct. 1, 2008

With the sudden departure of Kevin Roach two weeks ago, and the news today that Rockwell has let go Rick Dolezal, their manager of process industry marketing and the public face of Rockwell's Process Systems User Group (PSUG) one cannot help ask questions about Rockwell's continuing commitment to the process industries. Rockwell has been being consistently beaten up by the analyst community for pouring "excessive" amounts of money into R&D and acquisitions that some analysts have seen as "ill-conceived" and even "wrong-headed."

With the sudden departure of Kevin Roach two weeks ago, and the news today that Rockwell has let go Rick Dolezal, their manager of process industry marketing and the public face of Rockwell's Process Systems User Group (PSUG) one cannot help ask questions about Rockwell's continuing commitment to the process industries. Rockwell has been being consistently beaten up by the analyst community for pouring "excessive" amounts of money into R&D and acquisitions that some analysts have seen as "ill-conceived" and even "wrong-headed."

It isn't clear to me what Rockwell's intentions are here. Is this a signal of a deep pullback from the more expensive to penetrate process automation marketplace?