Honeywell [HON] on Tuesday said it has given up its pursuit of acquiring United Technologies Corp. [UTX] given UTC’s strong objections to the potential combination.
Dave Cote, chairman and CEO of Honeywell, said that “continuing to try and negotiate with an unwilling partner is inconsistent with our disciplined acquisition process.”
UTC in turn said the Honeywell’s announcement “is the appropriate outcome given the strong regulatory obstacles, negative customer reaction and the potential for a protracted review process that would have destroyed shareholder value.”
Honeywell maintains that the proposed acquisition, valued at about $91 billion in cash and stock, would not have been materially hindered by regulators and that there would be significant value creation for shareholders.
“From both an industrial logic and shareholder value perspective, Honeywell and United Technologies are a great match and that is why the two companies have been talking about a combination for more than 15 years,” Cote said in a statement. “We made a full and fair offer that would have greatly benefited both sets of shareowners.”
Honeywell said last week that the acquisition would create a $97 billion multi-industrial global company with 39 percent of sales coming from homes and business markets, 28 percent from commercial aerospace, 13 percent from defense and space, 12 percent from industrial, and 7 percent from oil and gas.