Looking to develop an automation business unit, Cooper Power Systems (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.) explored various companies, and ultimately found Cannon Technologies (Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.) to be a highly complementary fit. Cooper announced the acquisition in mid-August.

Cannon Technologies, which grew its business 60% last year and plans to grow another 60% this year, provides distribution automation solutions through its Yukon Advanced Energy Services platform, a Web-enabled suite of software, hardware and communications tools for electric utilities.

The acquisition benefits both of the companies as well as their customers, cite those close to the deal. “The acquisition enables [Cooper Power] to think more about how we can make our products smarter,” noted Larry Coble, vice president of business development for Cooper Power Systems.

Cooper sees automation as adding value to its already solid distribution equipment and apparatus. “Utilities aren't looking to just buy one product that we sell today, they're really looking for us to provide an end-to-end solution and give them something that enables them to change their business.”

Cannon, which has been in business for 20 years, wasn't originally looking to sell but did so because the acquisition would allow it to leverage the strength and scale of Cooper's customer relationships, sales force, application engineering support and funding capability. “With increased emphasis on SAIDI and CAIDI, it's natural for our software and our communication-enabling capabilities to work with Cooper to bring back information from the soon-to-be smart grid,” explained Ed Cannon, co-founder and CEO of Cannon Technologies.

The two companies are preparing to release new product offerings beginning in 2007. “We're working with Cooper to integrate Cannon software and communications capability into Cooper systems and offer to the market a more complete line of automation systems that will include integrated protection systems, integrated fault and outage location systems, and some other automation solutions that we'll work on together,” said Joel Cannon, co-founder and president of Cannon Technologies.

Combining the engineering capabilities of both organizations is leading to some interesting product developments, according to Coble. “Careful management of the grid, with demand response, capacitor control, remote switching of feeders to balance loads at the appropriate times, are all integrated solutions that Cooper can offer [as a result of the automation acquisition],” Ed Cannon explained.

The two companies have already had opportunities in 2006 to combine their resources and provide better service to their customers. In fact, only three weeks after closing the deal, the companies received an order for a joint automation project for a customer in South Central United States. “We were seamlessly able to put [the project] together very quickly after the deal, once the sales force at Cooper communicated with the automation team at Cannon,” noted Joel Cannon.

Ed and Joel will continue to lead Cannon Technologies, which will operate as part of the Cooper Power Systems division of Cooper Industries.