United Technologies' blockbuster forges do-it-all aviation giant

(Sept 6): United Technologies Corp., whose Pratt & Whitney division supplies the engine to the F-35 fighter, agreed to buy Rockwell Collins Inc. for about US$23 billion ($31 billion), giving rise to an aerospace behemoth that can outfit jetliners and warplanes from tip to tail.

The deal, one of the biggest in aviation history, creates an aircraft-parts giant better positioned to withstand the squeeze from planemakers Boeing Co. and Airbus SE for pricing discounts and higher output. The company will boast a broad suite of products for airplanes, from Rockwell Collins’s touchscreen cockpit displays to United Technologies’s Pratt & Whitney jet engines.

“The combination gives us the ability to both scale and innovate,” Greg Hayes, chief executive officer of United Technologies, told analysts on a conference call Tuesday, a day after the deal was announced. “This will be good for our customers, it will be good for the industry because it gives us the scale to do things we couldn’t do on our own.”

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