This corporate reshuffling should not have surprised anyone. Honeywell may be the last of the now “old-fashioned” conglomerates. No one could argue the famous “synergies” justification for keeping these divisions together.
In brief from the news release:
- Honeywell Automation will be a pure play automation leader with global scale and a vast installed base
- Honeywell Aerospace will be a premier technology and systems provider enabling the future of aviation globally
- Advanced Materials, previously announced to be spun, will be a leading provider of sustainability-focused specialty chemicals and materials
- Separation of Automation and Aerospace to be completed in a manner that is tax-free to Honeywell shareholders in the second half of 2026
We are mostly interested in what happens with Honeywell Automation. GE had been like a “twin brother from different mothers” company. It sold part of its old automation business to Emerson. It kept software including the legacy industrial iFix which overlayed Intellution and Cimplicity, plus an MES. But GE buried that business within GE Energy. I seldom hear from them anymore.
Honeywell had launched a software business a few years ago with much hoopla. I attended a conference a couple years ago. Since then I’ve not been able to get any news or information. I heard from a marketing person who was newly installed (after letting go of the agency) in the Security group. She said she’d put me in touch with an unnamed source in automation. Never heard from her again. Haven’t had a word from Connected Enterprise.
Once before Honeywell put many projects on hold while GE pursued a takeover. Maybe they have been on hiatus while the board figured out the future direction of the entire company.
The legal and logistics and personnel work to be done pushes the date into 2026. It’ll be interesting to hear from the company in the upcoming months. They have scheduled a Honeywell User Group (HUG) for this summer. Perhaps we’ll learn more then.
