Bendix Corporation - Mergers

Mergers

In the decades between 1970 and 1990, Bendix went through a series of mergers, sales and changes with partners or buyers including Raytheon, Allied Signal and others. This diluted its corporate identity, though for some years these companies used the Bendix brand for some of their products, such as aircraft flight control systems.

In 1982 Bendix launched a hostile takeover bid of Martin Marietta. Bendix bought the majority of Martin Marietta shares and in effect owned the company. However, Martin Marietta's management used the short time between ownership and control to sell non-core businesses and launch its own hostile takeover of Bendix – the Pac-Man Defense. Industrial conglomerate United Technologies joined the fray, supporting Martin Marietta in their counter-takeover bid. In the end, Bendix was rescued by the Allied Corporation, acting as a white knight. Bendix was acquired by Allied in 1983 for US$85 per share. The Allied Corporation, later named AlliedSignal, later bought Honeywell and adopted the Honeywell name, and Bendix became a Honeywell brand, including the Bendix/King brand of avionics. Honeywell's commercial vehicles division also has a Bendix line of electronics and other vacuum or hydraulic subsystems.

In 2002 Knorr-Bremse took over from Honeywell International Inc., USA its share of joint ventures in Europe, Brazil and the USA. Bendix Commercial Vehicle Systems becomes a subsidiary of Knorr-Bremse AG. The Knorr-Bremse Group achieves sales of EUR 2.1 billion for the first time.