Finishing & Screen Printing
ITW Board of Directors Approve Plan to Divest Decorative Surfaces and Click Commerce Businesses
Monday 11. August 2008 - Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW) today announced that its board of directors had authorized a plan to commence the divestiture process for several businesses: the Decorative Surfaces segment consisting of the Wilsonart and related laminate businesses and the Click Commerce industrial software business. ITW has retained Goldman Sachs to advise on the divestiture process for the Decorative Surfaces units.
Wilsonart was acquired in 1999 by ITW as part of the Premark International transaction. In 2007, the decorative surfaces segment had revenues of $1.2 billion and operating margins of 13 percent. Founded in 1956, Wilsonart manufacturers and distributes a variety of custom construction products for commercial, residential and renovation applications. Products include decorative laminate, solid surface, flooring, decorative materials, adhesives and custom edges. The group has 16 business units worldwide with the majority of revenues based in North America. International businesses, represented by the Wilsonart, Polyrey and Resopal brand names, are located in France, Germany, United Kingdom, Thailand and China.
“The Decorative Surfaces group has a variety of premium brands and is a very valuable asset. As a result, we have received a number of inquiries about the laminate businesses from potential buyers over the years,” said David B. Speer, chairman and chief executive officer. “We believe the proposed sale of these businesses would provide a new owner the opportunity to fully leverage the depth and breadth of the decorative surfacing products and technologies as well as their unique design and full-service capabilities.”
Acquired by ITW in October of 2006, Click Commerce is a supplier of software solutions and consulting services to a number of large, international companies. With 2007 revenues of $67 million, Click Commerce offers solutions in key categories such as supply chain and parts optimization, clinical research, contingent labor management and commerce.
“Click Commerce is another valuable asset that has proven to have a different business model than the typical, industrial-based ITW operation,” said Speer. “While we have made significant improvements in the Click Commerce business over the past 18 months, given the valuations for potential acquisitions in this area we believe it would be difficult to grow and achieve sufficient business scale in this software space.”
As part of today’s announcement, ITW said that it plans to reclassify these businesses to discontinued operations in the third quarter of 2008.
With $16.2 billion in revenues, ITW is a multinational manufacturer of a diversified range of value-added industrial products and equipment. The Company consists of approximately 825 business units in 52 countries and employs some 60,000 people.