No Tears for One Less $100 Billion Behemoth

It took four years, two activists and a $30 billion acquisition, but United Technologies Corp. is finally breaking up.

The industrial conglomerate announced late Monday that it will spin off its climate-controls unit and elevator business, leaving the company focused on Pratt & Whitney jet engines and the merger of its aerospace-parts division with avionics-maker Rockwell Collins Inc. That $30 billion deal also closed Monday after a drawn-out regulatory review in China, and was key to cushioning the surviving United Technologies aerospace business with the cash flow needed for expensive engine-development cycles.