United Tech Bids $2.6B for Diebold 129
zhang1983 writes "United Technologies, parent company of jet engine-maker Pratt & Whitney, Otis elevator and Sikorsky Aircraft, said it made the unsolicited offer to Diebold for $2.63 billion on Friday after trying to negotiate a deal for two years.
United Technologies said the company announced the offer Sunday night because executives believe their offer is "so compelling we thought shareholders should know about it.""
Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Funny)
24% --- In favor
25% --- Against
51% --- Republican
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Although this is quite funny, I find it disturbing that my party seems to always be the crux of this type of joke. I am not complaining about it though. I think it is more of a sad commentary, and perhaps a wake up call, to the state of the Republican party.
Re:Yeah but... (Score:4, Insightful)
Because McCain is connected (Score:2, Informative)
The Anti-Lobbyist, Advised by Lobbyists [washingtonpost.com]
Re:Yeah but... (Score:5, Insightful)
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If you think Abraham Lincoln wasn't racist, you're lying to yourself.
"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a phys
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The stereotypical members of both parties right now hold strong, and in my opinion highly immoral, prejudicial bias against more than one segment of our current free society. The line isn't drawn by skin color anymore in many cases (not that there isn't still plenty of racism), but there is just as much hate based on arbitrary cultural differences.
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Cheers.
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24% in favor
25% against
52% Republican
101%, counting the evil bit? (Score:1)
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For Sale: One Election (Score:1)
Oh wait. This is just the startup costs... *sigh*
I guess my dreams of world conquest are falling apart around me.
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It's probably not about Premier Elections Systems (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's probably not about Premier Elections Syste (Score:5, Informative)
Elections, despite the notoriety it has caused, is more or less a 'side' business for Diebold, which was probably the result of someone high-up watching the Gore VS Bush Florida recount debacle and saying to himself, "Now THAT [election devices] looks like a growth market right there..." As far as I know, the 'Diebold Election Systems' branch was simply bought and bolted on to the company.
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Which would you rather control, a $2.8b company or a $13 trillion economy?
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You are absolutely right. (Score:5, Funny)
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NASA: More of the same. Dump cash into space research and suddenly you have non-tube transistors, heat shielding, capri sun packets, CO2 buffers, some toy that uses heated iron to break CO2 down into carbon deposits (scrape t
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Minesweeper in 3D is pissing me off now so let me get back to that (Mines Perfect...)
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Re:It's IS about Premier Elections Systems (Score:3, Funny)
Diebold's Other Miscellaneous Businesses $0.6 billion
Ability to control the US's elections... Priceless.
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In fact, they're not the only (nor are they nearly the worst) player in the "bad voting machines" business; they're just the most publicly known.
The worst part is: to be legitimately doing this business, they are supposed to follow rigorous testing, documentation, and change-control processes. They have demonstrated over and over that they are incapable of doing so - in violation of the contracts they signed with the govern
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To this day the elections division often appears to be a rogue group within Diebold.
The reason Diebold bought the struggling Global was the $3.5billion in Federal funding pumped into buying new voting machines v
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Other industries, too. (Score:1)
Diebold has a *very* large access-control installation and service division, which could tie very well into the acquisition of Lenel from a couple years ago.
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This isn't quite true, at least from a revenue aspect. UTC is closer to $50B (#42 in current fortune 100 list), and Carrier, Otis and P&W are currently so close in revenue that it could teeter to either on any given year depending on contract cycles. Probably close to 25% for each.
That being said, 5 years ago P&W was by far the 800lb gorilla of the corporation. There isn't a whole lot left out there on the aerospace side to acquire. The commercial industrial side is where all the low lying fruit is
It could be worse... (Score:1)
Sikorsky Aircraft? (Score:1)
Re:Sikorsky Aircraft? (Score:5, Informative)
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It's Vladimir Putin.
Re:Sikorsky Aircraft? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't really think Diebold is controlled by a foreign power currently, but it seems like a rather high risk to take - combined with a rather low chance of finding out if it were to happen.
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Sikorsky was founded in America by a Russian Immigrant in 1923
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the Wikipedia article you should have read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Igor_Sikorsky [wikipedia.org]
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"In 1928, Sikorsky became a naturalized citizen of the United States. The next year, Sikorsky Aero Engineering Company was purchased by, and became a subsidiary of, United Aircraft, itself now a part of United Technologies Corporation."
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Quoting parent: "But people here really should know better"
I guess there are lies in the article, but the bottomline is there and is correct.
Igor Sikorsky was a Rusian engineer famous for building helicopters an he happens to be a founder of the company with his name.
Joe Sixpack?? Not realy, I do know a bit of history, and as opposed to others and I do remember Igor Si
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How true! I personally prefer the Uncyclopedia, and it says Igor Sikorsky [uncyclopedia.org] doesn't exist. Oh wait, here he is [uncyclopedia.org], apparently he changed his name to "Smith". Hell, if I had a Russian name during the cold war [uncyclopedia.org] I'd change it to "Smith" too!
Ignore that nonsense on Wikipedia, Uncyclopedia is way more accura [uncyclopedia.org]
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To cut the BS and go right to the heart of your philosophical confusion. You can't prove to me that you exist.
Confusion (Score:5, Informative)
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Since the voting machines have had problems, all the news has been about that portion of their company, especially in an election year.
Now, if all their machines had started spewing out $20s at a certain time of day at some point last year, then we would be talking about the atm machines.
Many companies are known (or infamous) for a small subset of their business. Diebold is no exception, especially when they have been all over Slashdot for their voting machines for
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Sorta like slashdot, actually. How many of the readers here, other than the minority of software developers, know anything at all about SourceForge's other "products"? How many readers ha
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I'm not sure we think that - it's just that their election systems cause us to be interested in them. "United Tech Bids $2.6B for some boring ATM manufacturer" probably wouldn't have been posted on Slashdot - and rightly so IMHO.
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The position of control over a whole country's election system is
far more valuable than the revenue of the business. Why do you think
that the voting machine business being less valuable on the bottom line
makes it a less important part of the company's portfolio?
Now even more pressure to buy the Voting machines (Score:3, Funny)
I can hear it now:
"Buy the machines, or we stop all your elevators, and we turn off all the fire and intrusion alarms!"
Now THAT is a good bargaining chip.
Profit! (Score:5, Insightful)
So 2.63 billion is the cost of buying an election? (Score:2)
Re:So 2.63 billion is the cost of buying an electi (Score:1)
In a total suprise... (Score:3, Funny)
Is it just me? (Score:4, Insightful)
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You've been under a rock. From Wikepedia (Mergers and Acquisitions):
The Great Merger Movement was a predominantly U.S. business phenomenon that happened from 1895 to 1905. During this time, small firms with little market share consolidated with similar firms to form large, powerful institutions that dominated their markets. The vehicle used were so-called trusts. To truly understand how large this movement was--in 1900 the value of firms acquired in mergers was 20% of GDP. In 1990 the value was only 3% and from 1998-2000 is was around 10-11% of GDP. Organizations that commanded the greatest share of the market in 1905 saw that command disintegrate by 1929 as smaller competitors joined forces with each other.
This does not break down solicited/unsolicited, but remember the 80's when corporate raiders and hostile takeovers became the business/social symbols of success?
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Guess its a hostile take over (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Yes (Score:2)
Anyway, I've been trying to find a job at UTC for years... they're a great conglomerate (and based nearby). Maybe I can find one at Diebold UTC
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Shady elections are one thing... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not saying anyone did, but an insider would be up 65% plus on the buyout bid news this morning...
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How so? The Diebold electronic-voting scandal has been with us for about a decode now, and I don't seem to have read of any indictments. Even Wally O'Dell's infamous promise in writing to deliver Ohio to the Republican got no obvious attention from the legal system. There don't seem to be much more than a few small-scale, local investigations so far, and the Justice Dept seems supremely uninterested in the top
In unrelated news... (Score:3, Funny)
Awesome tactic (Score:2)
Open, honest, and arm twisting as hell. There was another typical tactic [slashdot.org] used in politics (corporate politics too I'm sure) that arm twisted from another angle; I almost cried when I read that one... really disgusting.
This is how I like to see the game played, whether in the big business or politics field or in the social realm. There's too much FUD and crappy threats going on everywhere, or blackmail with deep dark secrets; line the facts up and appeal to the interests of whoever you're trying to co
Totally makes sense to buy now ... (Score:5, Funny)
Err... (Score:3, Funny)
Sounds like a bargin (Score:2)
Unsolicitied Offer Season... (Score:2)
I just can't remember three such high profiles offers being made in such close proximity to each other. Not that I follow the financial markets closely...
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Actually, the only reason I've noticed is because they've shown up in articles here on Slashdot. :^).
Just like Otis (Score:2)
Synergy (Score:2)
Hostile Takeover (Score:5, Interesting)
I actually read about this in my local paper Hartford Courant [courant.com] this morning. I don't think the CNN article really does a good job indicating the "hostile" in this hostile takeover. Note the part where Laurer directed UTC not to have further contact with board members.
My impression is that UTC has been getting more heavily into security over the last several years and they are probably more interested the ATM/check machine aspect of Diebold, in spite of Diebold's entanglements with voting machines.
Pentagon Voting Machines (Score:5, Insightful)
Not while their products are closed systems, able to be rigged in secret, anyway.
M.I.C. + voting machine ownership = fascist state (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:M.I.C. + voting machine ownership = fascist sta (Score:2)
Eisenhower was right.
Diebold shouldn't exist.
what the hecK? (Score:2)
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Seems to me like perfect proof of incompetence right there.
The price is Just about right... (Score:1)
Fools (Score:2)
I think we may have been set up. Hook, line and sinker.
Diebold bought their way into the election biz (Score:3, Insightful)
Security Analysis of the Diebold AccuVote-TS Votin (Score:2)
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8673726680080882009 [google.com]