Skil Corporation
The acquiring company Emerson had a strategy of producing low cost and high quality products. It started on a program of acquisitions to meets its aggressive goals of growing sales 15% annually. It had acquired only financially successful companies. But in 1979, it acquired Skil Corporation, a financially mediocre and low performing company for $58 million. Skil was a leading manufacturer of portable power tools serving the professional and consumer markets, the circular saw being the strongest and best seller amongst those tools, which it also invented, and was amongst the top three in power tools market share holdings in U.S. Other power tools that Skil manufactured included mid-priced drills and roto hammers. Skil manufactured multiple different models for different countries, depending upon the local needs of the market. Under increasing competitive pressure, Skil’s financial results had not been high and attractive, although reported profitability had improved in recent years. It sold through all distribution channels but was well established in hardware stores and had a strong position in circular saws in contractor supply channels. Its sales force serviced all distributors except the mass merchandisers. Skil seldom advertised and relied more on product publicity. It sold tools on a worldwide basis, with its greatest international strength in Europe. Emerson has a task at hand to improve the market share of Skil Corporation given that the industry is saturated and has competitors like Black and Decker and Sears. Here we have to apply 5 forces to analyze the buyers, new entrants, rivalry etc…

1. Analysis of the structure of the Portable Electric Tool Industry Industry Structure Attractiveness: Moderate / Low ROE=10%, Profit margin=4% on average This is primarily because of high rivalry between competitors. Despite of the low threats from