It Takes a Few Tries to Break Up a Conglomerate
Fortive is the latest industrial giant to announce yet another spinoff in an attempt to win over investors.
Fresh spinoff announcements at Fortive and DuPont show why one breakup usually isn't enough for industrial conglomerates.
Photographer: Daniel Acker/BloombergTo get Industrial Strength delivered directly to your inbox, sign up here.
How many spinoffs does it take to unravel an industrial conglomerate? Usually more than one.
Fortive Corp. announced this week that it will break off its industrial test-and-measurement business into a separate publicly traded company. This follows the spinoff of Fortive itself from Danaher Corp. in 2016 and then Fortive’s subsequent spinoff of the Vontier Corp. transportation-and-mobility business in 2020. Danaher ultimately also spun off its Envista Holdings Corp. dental business and the Veralto Corp. water technologies division. Analysts including Deane Dray of RBC have questioned whether Veralto will also break up again, pointing out that its business that makes water testing and treatment tools doesn’t have much overlap with the one that makes package labeling technologies and tests that ensure each tube of lipstick and bucket of paint is the same color.