By Patricia Vowinkel
NEW YORK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - General Electric Co.<GE.N>
said on Sunday it agreed to buy Honeywell International Inc.
<HON.N> for $45 billion in stock, in a move to bolster its key
aerospace, industrial systems, power and plastics businesses.
As part of the deal, the largest acquisition in GE's
history, John "Jack" Welch will stay on as chairman and chief
executive of GE through the end of 2001, pushing back a planned
April retirement in order to see the through the integration of
Morris Township, N.J.-based Honeywell.
GE was expected to name a No. 2 and heir apparent to Welch,
an American business icon who turns 65 in Nov. 19, within the
next month or two. A senior member of GE's board, Silas
Cathcart, did say in a release, however, that the company
planned "to proceed on schedule with succession actions to name
a chairman-elect before year end."
Michael Bonsignore, chairman and CEO of Honeywell, will
become a GE board member, and two more Honeywell directors will
join the GE board. |
