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Tektronix to sell
October 18, 2007

Tektronix shareholders have decided to take the money ($38/share or $2.8 billion) and run, selling the company to Danaher, parent company of Fluke. Since being acquired by Danaher in 1998, Fluke has remained autonomous, at least to the outside world. Companies such as Hart Scientific came into the Fluke fold, with no mention of Danaher. If you look at Fluke's Web site, you won't even find the Danaher name. I doubt that Danaher will do anything different with Tektronix. Doing so would be foolish. As you know, Tek is highly respected by both customers and competitors.

Fluke and Tek don't compete much anymore. Tek has stayed with its strength--oscilloscopes as well as venturing into high-end communications test equipment. Fluke has also stayed with its strength--handheld test instruments and calibration equipment although it too covers many other areas. There is some overlap, particularly with waveform generators and a little with handheld oscilloscopes. I wonder if those product lines will consolidate under one name, though perhaps not.

Hopefully, nobody will lose a job because of this acquisition.

Posted by Martin Rowe on October 18, 2007 | Comments (1)