When a large conglomerate is purchased by an even larger conglomerate, it is always interesting to see what happens to the people and to the name of the acquired company. Typically there are great press releases by both companies about synergies and opportunities and even love fests. Behind the scenes lists are usually made, vendettas settled, factories closed and jobs are eliminated. Within a few years the company name is either gone or relegated to a brand.
We have been watching the Eaton Cooper acquisition. Originally, Cooper Lighting management told the EdisonReport that Eaton purchased a very successful lighting company and they planned to invest in that company while using the strength of Eaton to accelerate growth. Personally, your humble editor was skeptical and I waited for the list. As the one-year anniversary of the acquisition approaches, there is still no list. In fact, it appears that Eaton has made significant investments. Not only have there been no layoffs, but Cooper is hiring. Mark Eubanks is still in charge and we hear from Cooper associates at recent conferences that morale is quite high as more engineers and support resources have been added. In addition, the reps we talk to speak of increased revenue from the line and we have seen some neat products lately, specifically, WaveStream LED.
So it appears that everything is going well. The one thing we have found amusing is the two names being used: 1) Eaton’s Cooper Lighting and 2) Cooper Lighting by Eaton.
This week, we spoke to Rick Pabst, Director of Strategic Marketing. He explained that Eaton purchased Cooper and obviously realized the tremendous value of the name. “Cooper Lighting by Eaton—leads with the word Cooper but it brings the key brands together,” he explained. I asked if the Cooper Lighting name would ever go away and he said that he cannot say never, but there are absolutely no plans for that.
He explained the difference between the two names:
- ‘Cooper Lighting by Eaton’ is the visual mark. This has replaced the old Cooper Lighting logo that had the small red flag.
- ‘Eaton’s Cooper Lighting Business’ is how the company will be referred to in written text.
There are probably five to seven great names in our industry and Cooper is one of them. We are glad to see this name is not going away soon.