US authorities clear ABB's Baldor takeover
US competition authorities have cleared Swedish-Swiss engineering giant ABB's takeover of American motor and generator manufacturer Baldor Electric, the company announced on Thursday.
ABB said in a statement that following the clearance by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, it expected to "close the acquisition of Baldor" soon after the tender offer closed on January 25th.
Last November, it said it had agreed to buy Baldor for $4.2 billion (27.9 billion kronor).
The management of both groups had approved the transaction and ABB said at the time it would launch a tender offer to buy Baldor's outstanding shares for $63.50 per share, a premium of 41 percent over the US group's stock price on November 29th, 2010.
At the time, numerous law firms announced investigations into the alleged fairness of the deal. Arkansas-based Baldor employs about 7,000 people and reported an operating profit of $184 million in the first nine months of 2010.
ABB plans to integrate Baldor into its motors and generators business, a move which it has said would bring about savings of $200 million annually by 2015.
Baldor Electric was founded in 1920 by Edwin Ballman and Emil Doerr. The name of the company was derived using part of each of their names.
In 1967, the company's headquarters were moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas. On January 31st, 2007, Baldor Electric acquired the Dodge and Reliance Electric brands from Rockwell Automation for $1.8 billion.
ABB is one of the largest engineering companies and conglomerates in the world. It has operations in around 100 countries with about 117,000 employees and reported global revenue of $31.8 billion for 2009.
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ABB said in a statement that following the clearance by the Antitrust Division of the United States Department of Justice, it expected to "close the acquisition of Baldor" soon after the tender offer closed on January 25th.
Last November, it said it had agreed to buy Baldor for $4.2 billion (27.9 billion kronor).
The management of both groups had approved the transaction and ABB said at the time it would launch a tender offer to buy Baldor's outstanding shares for $63.50 per share, a premium of 41 percent over the US group's stock price on November 29th, 2010.
At the time, numerous law firms announced investigations into the alleged fairness of the deal. Arkansas-based Baldor employs about 7,000 people and reported an operating profit of $184 million in the first nine months of 2010.
ABB plans to integrate Baldor into its motors and generators business, a move which it has said would bring about savings of $200 million annually by 2015.
Baldor Electric was founded in 1920 by Edwin Ballman and Emil Doerr. The name of the company was derived using part of each of their names.
In 1967, the company's headquarters were moved from St. Louis, Missouri to Fort Smith, Arkansas. On January 31st, 2007, Baldor Electric acquired the Dodge and Reliance Electric brands from Rockwell Automation for $1.8 billion.
ABB is one of the largest engineering companies and conglomerates in the world. It has operations in around 100 countries with about 117,000 employees and reported global revenue of $31.8 billion for 2009.
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