Brooke Sutherland, Columnist

The $20 Billion Takeover Target That Wasn't

ABB passes it by for much smaller prey, leaving the stock without a catalyst for further gains.

April 5, 2017 at 7:09 PM UTC

Brooke Sutherland is Bloomberg News' Boston bureau chief and writes the Industrial Strength Newsletter. She was previously a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals and industrial companies and an M&A reporter for Bloomberg News.

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Good things come in small(er) packages for ABB Ltd.

The Swiss maker of circuit breakers and industrial robots on Tuesday announced it was buying Bernecker & Rainer Industrie-Elektronik GmbH to help it catch up to rival Siemens AG in automation and associated software. It's ABB's biggest takeover in five years with a reported cost of close to $2 billion, but the company reportedly also considered a much bigger, $20 billion-plus prize: Rockwell Automation Inc. Minor difference.