Part One
Dover Corporation manufactures industrial products and manufacturing equipment in the United States and Europe. It operates in six segments: diversified, electronics, industries, resources, systems, and technologies. Through these six segments, Dover Corporation manages more than 50 companies that make equipment ranging from garbage trucks to ink-jet printers. Dover Corporation focuses its acquisition process on finding larger, entrepreneurial companies with strong growth margins. By using the related link diversification strategy, Dover has established the six segment structure, and also the "stand alone" and "add-on" approach within these segments which allows for only limited links between businesses.
Finding and acquiring solid companies has been and continues to be a critical driver in Dover's growth by using criteria such as finding the best market leadership and brand strength, a record of new product development, an experienced management team and solid financial performance. The ever increasing global focus, as well as the preference for companies that have well-developed intellectual property portfolios, allows Dover to take notice of companies based upon their size, product mix and that are fully independent, referring to them as "stand alone" acquisitions. These acquisitions can simply be plugged into the Dover System.
Once Dover has established a strong hold in an attractive industry, they often look to expanding their presence in that market segment by acquiring "add-ons" or related linked firms. Dover often integrates these businesses into an existing platform to generate additional customer, product, distrib ...