GE and Honeywell Stare Down a $74 Billion Monster
Neither is rushing to respond to the blockbuster aerospace deal between United Technologies and Raytheon, but they can't ignore it.
Who says bigger is better?
Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
United Technologies Corp. CEO Greg Hayes dropped the bombshell news of his company’s merger with missile-maker Raytheon Co. just days before the start of the Paris Air Show, thereby ensuring rivals would have to answer questions about the deal at the industry’s premier event. The deal will turn United Technologies into a $74 billion commercial aviation and defense powerhouse, with the kind of scale and negotiating leverage that was previously only enjoyed by Boeing Co. and Airbus SE. Management at General Electric Co. and Honeywell International Inc. don’t seem in any rush to respond in kind, and they aren’t so sure bigger is better. But the United Technologies-Raytheon merger is so big that it will be impossible for them to ignore it.
“We’ve never really considered scale as a part of our strategy,” Tim Mahoney, CEO of Honeywell Aerospace, said in an interview at the Air Show on Monday. The company prioritizes differentiated products that are more than a “me-too” and believes that will ultimately give it an advantage with manufacturers and airlines, he said. GE’s David Joyce, who heads up the company’s aerospace business, echoed that thought in a Bloomberg TV interview: “That merger may have scale but we have the right technologies and engines to be competitive.”