SANTA ROSA ? Cal Sensors, a long-time developer and distributor of infrared detectors and emitters, was acquired by ITW, a global producer of highly engineered components and systems with $14.1 billion in revenues.
The amount of the transaction was not disclosed. Cal Sensors has revenues of $6 million.
Cal Sensors will retain its name and continue to operate as an independent company, in keeping with ITW's decentralized organization structure. The Illinois-based, publicly traded company has 750 business units around the world.
"Our business strategy calls for the opposite of consolidation," said ITW spokesman Ron Schmidt, who is general manager of ITW company Lumex.
"We find that leaders of small, independent companies are closer to the market and can make the right decisions the most rapidly," he said.
By becoming an ITW company Cal Sensors will have access to resources that will allow it to expand its markets, said President and CEO Larry Johnson.
"It's a wonderful opportunity for us to grow, and ITW is fully aware of the rich labor pool we have to draw from here," he said.
Forty-employee Cal Sensors was founded in 1986 by partners Bob McLean, now retired, and Loren Wicklund, currently board chairman and about to retire. The company originally made sensors for the defense and aerospace industries but moved into commercial markets.
With 40 percent of its business overseas, mostly in Europe, Cal Sensors leads its market, a large part of which is carbon dioxide and anesthesia detectors for the medical industry and, increasingly, greenhouse gas detectors.
"Greenhouse gas detection in smoke stacks is a growing market for us, especially in Europe, where our technology is in wide use," said Mr. Johnson.
"There are other companies that make CO2 detectors, but most of them are our customers."
ITW was founded in 1912 as Illinois Tool Works, a maker of industrial metal cutting tools. The company now employs 55,000 in 49 countries, all in small, local operations.
They range from food equipment to photonics. Stero in Petaluma, a maker of commercial dishwashing systems, is an ITW company.
"None of our companies does what Cal Sensors does, so we won't be putting in people from other areas, or eliminating redundant features," said Mr. Schmidt.
"All new hires will be local," he added.
ITW grows by acquisitions. Last year it made 53 of them. Traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the company has a 25-year shareholder return of 19 percent and a 15 percent compound annual growth rate.
ITW's stock traded at $52.32 when this story went to press.
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