Fortive Ties The Knot With Gordian

Fortive’s (FTV) management is not letting the grass grow under its feet when it comes to M&A. While it’s easy to assemble a Greek chorus of industrial CEOs to bemoan the difficulty of doing accretive deals with today’s prevailing valuations, Fortive is beating the bushes, turning over the rocks, and finding interesting opportunities. The latest deal, the nearly $800 million acquisition of Gordian, is Fortive’s biggest commitment to date in the software/SaaS space, but it looks like a sound deal with good growth and margin prospects. Although Fortive’s prospective returns still look too low for me to be really bullish on the shares, it’s easier to like a company that's aggressively redeploying capital not just toward growth, but value-additive growth.

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Fortive Ties The Knot With Gordian