Black Decker

1910: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker quit their jobs and form their own company with $1,200 in capital. They initially made a bottle-capping machine and a candy-dipping device. They soon begin work on a power drill from a plant on South Calvert Street in today's Inner Harbor. 1917: The firm patents a drill design, called the world's first portable power drill with a pistol grip. It is related to a portable air-compressor they had also patented. Also, Black & Decker's first plant opens in Towson.

George F. Parker, a retired mechanical engineer and world traveler, died Wednesday of cancer at his Severna Park home. He was 74. The son of an engineer and a homemaker, Mr. Parker was born in Wayne, Mich., and moved with his family in 1943 to Cleveland. He was a 1956 graduate of Gilmore Academy in Gates Mills, Ohio, and earned his bachelor's degree in 1960 from the University of Notre Dame. Mr. Parker worked for Lincoln Electric in Cleveland, and later for Moorfeed Co. in Indianapolis, before moving to Baltimore in 1982 when he took a position with now-closed Airco.

1910: Duncan Black and Alonzo Decker quit their jobs and form their own company with $1,200 in capital. They initially made a bottle-capping machine and a candy-dipping device. They soon begin work on a power drill from a plant on South Calvert Street in today's Inner Harbor. 1917: The firm patents a drill design, called the world's first portable power drill with a pistol grip. Also, Black & Decker's first plant opens in Towson. 1919: Sales at the young company surpass $1 million annually.

Even after Stanley Black & Decker shareholders rejected the tool and security company's executive pay plan last spring, the company paid Nolan D. Archibald, its executive chairman and the former CEO of Black & Decker, a total of $64.4 million in 2011. Archibald became chairman in March 2010 when the former Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. was bought by the Stanley Works in a $4.5 billion deal. At the time, Archibald's sale-related compensation, including bonuses tied to cost-cutting targets, drew criticism from corporate governance experts, who had estimated its worth at $89 million over three years.

If Nolan Archibald, CEO of Black & Decker, truly believes the merger with Stanley had "nothing to do with greed" ("Black & Decker merger approved," March 13), a nice gesture would be to give each of the 250 corporate workers in Towson who may be "let go" $100,000 of his own money. This would only cost him $25 million, or 28 percent of his estimated $89 million total compensation over the next three years. Scott White, Baltimore

T aking a play from the Baltimore Colts, Black & Decker's headquarters is heading out of town on the sly. For years the toolmaker has held its annual shareholder meeting in or near its Towson headquarters. The company's stock is widely owned in metro Baltimore, its home for a century. But Friday's meeting, at which shareholders are expected to approve Black & Decker's sale to Stanley Works, isn't even happening in Maryland. If you want to vote in person or express an opinion, you'll have to make it by 9 a.m. to the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott in Virginia, 70 miles from Towson.

T. Tracy Bilbrough, a career-long employee of Black & Decker Corp., has been promoted to president of the Eastern Hemisphere for the company's power tool group, overseeing sales and operations in Black & Decker's fast-growing market."

An article in yesterday's Business section incorrectly described the recent financial history of Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. While sales have been higher than those in comparable year-ago periods, profits have fallen and risen in the last four quarters.The continuing worldwide slump in spending and construction drove down quarterly revenues and earnings for the Towson-based tool and appliance maker.A company spokeswoman, Barbara Lucas, said that sales and profits have been declining for a year.

Power tool maker Black & Decker reported a 22 percent quarterly earnings loss Wednesday because of expenses related to its $4.5 billion acquisition by Stanley Works. But the Towson-based company said that it has started to see some improvement as the economy in some of its markets have begun to recover. Earnings for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31 were $33.9 million, or 55 cents per share, compared to $43.7 million, or 72 cents per share, for the same period a year ago. The earnings reflect $58.8 million in expenses related to the deal with Stanley Works – which is expected to close in the first half of the year – and a $20.8 million pretax structuring charge in 2008.

Power toolmaker Black & Decker Corp. is restoring pay cuts and the company match in its 401(k) retirement accounts as its financial outlook starts to improve, the company revealed in a regulatory filing Thursday. The Towson company made the salary reductions in April, one of several cost-cutting moves it has made throughout the year to help weather an economic downturn that has hurt sales of its tools. Base salaries of top executives were cut by 10 percent, salaried employees by 5 percent and salaried workers who qualify for overtime by 2.5 percent.

That gas mower you have owned for years is spewing all kinds of pollutants into the air. If you're ready to trade it in for a more environmentally-friendly model, Black & Decker is giving some incentive this weekend to do so. The power tool company on Saturday is giving discounts to people who trade in their old gas mowers for rechargeable mowers. The models available include: CM1936  –  19 in. 36V Rechargeable Mulching Mower with Removable Battery  CM1836 –  18 in. 36V Rechargeable Mulching Mower      Check here for more about the event, which runs from 12.

Paul D. "Denny" Owings, a retired Black & Decker Corp. manager and volunteer firefighter, died May 14 of heart failure at his home in New Bern, N.C. The former Lutherville resident was 66. Mr. Owings was born in Baltimore and raised in Lutherville. He was a 1962 graduate of Towson Catholic High School and earned a degree in industrial management from the University of Baltimore in 1969. Mr. Owings, who retired from Black & Decker in 2005 as a manager of engineering projects, had worked for the toolmaker at plants in Fayetteville, N.C., and Towson during his 42-year career.

Stanley Black & Decker shareholders aren't happy about what the company is paying top executives. About 54 percent of shareholders voted against the executive compensation packages, 35 percent gave them a thumbs up and the rest abstained or were broker non-votes, the company said last week. The results are advisory only, which means the company isn't forced to change its pay practices. Nolan D. Archibald, executive chairman of the company and the former CEO of Towson-based Black & Decker, earned $28 million last year, the company reported earlier.

I see from my newspaper about that $12 million investment Stanley Black & Decker plans to make for long-overdue upgrades to its Towson corporate campus, and I'm thinking: Beautiful, that's the way it should be — no need for the government to be involved anymore, and not after what the state of Maryland and Baltimore County went through with this company. If a company makes gobs of profits, it shouldn't need welfare from the states or towns where it does business. I'm sure the 1,100 employees in Towson are relieved to see their out-of-state bosses making this kind of investment.

News two years ago that toolmaker Stanley Works was merging with Towson-based Black & Decker in a $4.5 billion deal sent ripples of uncertainty across the state. The loss of a Fortune 500 company could not be good for the area, economic development officials feared. Many worried that the merger would result in major job losses and, in a worst-case scenario, the closure of Black & Decker's Towson campus, ending a century of power tool production and a storied history in the area. Much of that fear was alleviated Tuesday when Stanley Black & Decker announced that it is investing $12 million in the 33-acre site and is committed to making the campus a major part of the business.

Stanley Black & Decker said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit surged, fueled by acquisitions. The maker of hand tools and power tools and accessories also offered earnings guidance for this fiscal year above Wall Street forecasts. Net income rose to $137.8 million, or 81 cents per share, for the October-December period from $56.7 million, or 69 cents per share, a year ago. Stanley Works acquired Black & Decker in a $3.5 billion stock buyout approved in March 2010. The company now expects the Black & Decker acquisition will save $425 million by the end of 2012, more than the $350 million originally estimated.

Black & Decker Corp. defended Tuesday a real estate partnership between chief executive Nolan D. Archibald and a company board member who approved the toolmaker's pending acquisition by the Stanley Works and a lucrative compensation package for Archibald. Towson-based Black & Decker, which plans to put the $4.5 billion all-stock merger to a shareholder vote Friday, issued a news release in response to inquiries about whether the "private business relationship" with M. Anthony Burns compromised Burns' independence as a director.

As it moves closer to wrapping up a three-part divestiture plan, Towson-based Black & Decker Corp. said yesterday that it has completed the sale of its glass-making machinery business, Emhart Glass.Bucher Holding AG of Switzerland purchased Emhart for $194 million, netting Black & Decker $158 million -- significantly more than analysts had predicted.Electing to concentrate on power tools and hardware, Black & Decker is also in the process of selling a controlling interest in its True Temper Sports golf club shaft business to Cornerstone Equity Investors LLC for about $200 million and $4 million in preferred and common stock.

Stanley Black & Decker announced Thursday that it had acquired CRC-Evans International, a supplier of specialized tools, equipment and services for the construction of oil and natural gas transmission pipelines, in a $445 million cash deal. The Connecticut-based company bought CRC from a group of investors led by private equity firm Natural Gas Partners. Houston-based CRC, with fiscal revenue of about $250 million, will allow Stanley to immediately capitalize on favorable trends in the oil and gas infrastructure arena, Stanley said in a statement.