Free Soft

It was announced yesterday that after 4 attempts over the past 27 years Stanley Works has finally acquired Black & Decker in a $4.5 billion deal ($3.5bn stock & $1bn debt). Unfortunately this means about 4,000 additional jobs (10% of work force) will be cut from the business that has already seen dramatic cuts. Shareholders of Black & Decker will get 1.275 shares of Stanley stock and should see an increase in overall shareholder value from the merger.  

Stanley buys and sells companies faster than I can keep track, last year they sold CST/David White to Bosch Tools. It will be very interesting to see what shakes out from this deal. There are many arrangements behind the scenes with companies that have deals with Black & Decker to supply motors, parts, etc and they could potentially loose them under the Stanley brand. I guess the big question will be how will this effect the quality of the tools for DeWalt, Porter Cable and other brands. Black & Decker has had some problems in recent years with their loyal customers being disappointed in degrading quality. Is Stanley the answer?

In addition, both companies will host a joint investor lunch on Tuesday, November 3, 2009 at 12:00 p.m. ET in New York City. The live webcast of the meeting can be accessed at www.stanleyblackanddecker.com, www.stanleyworks.com and www.blackanddecker.com.  Read the Full Press Release Below:    

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Announced yesterday from the Yellow team is a new 1.25HP Compact Router available as a fixed base unit DWP611 ($139) or a combo kit which can be used with fixed or plunge base DW611PK ($199). The router is a variable speed unit and designed to do the work of both a palm router and many jobs of a full sized router. We have not seen one of these units in person so we are not sure how it would compare in size to the 1HP Bosch Colt Palm Sander PR20EVSK ($121, Ohio Power Tool) but our guess it would be very similar. It looks as though the new DeWalt is going to compete directly with the Bosch Colt which has been one of the most popular palm routers for years.

The DeWalt Compact Router also has some nice improvements such as clear base and LED lights which will make it much easier to see your work. We first saw these features on another Bosch router, the MRF23EVS but delays have kept the much anticipated 2.3HP Bosch router from being launched. Looks like this DeWalt router could beat it to market when it launches in October 2010. Checkout the full DeWalt Press Release below for more info. 

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