ABB is a major supplier of power and infrastructure products but it has had a gap with respect to power protection in that they did not have a significant line of Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) products.
In June of 2010 ABB thought it had solved this problem when it had an approved offer for Chloride which was a significant UK based supplier of industrial UPS products. A few days later, ABB was outbid by Emerson Electric. In an industry where the market for large industrial and data-center sized UPS are dominated by a handful of large suppliers such as Emerson, Schneider Electric (APC), and Eaton there was likely some relief the ABB had been rebuffed. Although there was some market and product synergy for the Emerson/Chloride deal, it would have been a better fit for ABB and Emerson likely overpaid with part of the strategy being to keep ABB out of the market.
ABB was left to console themselves with a partnership with General Motors to use electric vehicle batteries in grid power storage/stabilization projects that were similar/adjacent to the UPS market. This will likely be a growing market but it is at least a decade out before it becomes significant.
In mid-December, 2011 it looks like ABB finally found its extended UPS product line as it has an agreement to purchase fellow Swiss company Newave. Like before, it's a perfect match from a product line perspective and it gives the Newave UPS line the global ABB support and sale presence it needs to expand beyond the European market. As Christmas has now passed it looks like there will be no Grinch to step in and outbid them. It looks to be getting more interesting in the UPS market in 2012 and beyond now that ABB has increased their presence.
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