Intermec, an Everett-based company that develops RFID products, industrial printers and bar coding scanners, has agreed to be acquired for up to $600 million by Honeywell.
“Our board conducted a thoughtful and comprehensive strategic review of Intermec’s business with the goal of determining the best possible overall outcome for our stakeholders,” said Intermech Chairman Allen Lauer. “The agreement with Honeywell not only maximizes value for our stockholders, it combines our history of innovation and engineering expertise, global reach and leading products and solutions with the significant global scale and resources of Honeywell.”
The deal represents a 25 percent premium over Intermec’s stock price on Friday. Both boards have approved the deal. Intermec had been on the prowl for a new CEO, but it is now suspending that effort due to the merger. The company employs about 2,200.
Founded in 1966, the company adopted the Intermec name in 1982. It had revenue of $848 million last year. Here’s a timeline of Intermec’s history, and as you can see the Honeywell deal is not the first time Intermec has been acquired:
1966 – Interface Mechanisms formed
1982 – Company renamed Intermec Corporation
1991 – Acquired by Litton Industries, Inc.
1994 – Ownership transferred to Western Atlas Inc. (NYSE:WAI), a Litton spin-off
1997 – Ownership transferred to UNOVA, Inc., a Western Atlas spin-off
1997 – Acquired Norand and UBI (United Barcode Industries)
1997 – Acquired radio frequency identification (RFID) semiconductor technology from IBM, Inc.
1998 – Acquired Amtech Corporation’s high-frequency RFID business, Amtech Transportation Systems
2006 – UNOVA, Inc. became Intermec, Inc., retaining Intermec Technologies as subsidiary
2011 – Vocollect becomes a business-unit of Intermec
