TE Connectivity soars on $3B Broadband sale
Berwyn electrical-parts maker hits record high, posts higher profit
Shares of TE Connectivity, the Berwyn-based electrical switch, sensor and specialty parts company, jumped 4.4% to $67.46 a share after announcing it will sell its Broadband Network Solutions business (which makes telecom, enterprise netowrk and wireless parts) to North Carolina-based CommScope for $3 billion. Sale statement here,
Broadband Network Solutions last year accounted for nearly $2 billion of TE's $13 billion in yearly sales. TE will use sale proceeds to buy back its own stock, buy more companies, and build up its remaining businesses, chief executive Thomas J. Lynch told investors in a conference call. Shares of CommScope fell on the news.
TE also reported higher quarterly profits here. The company's shares closed today at its highest price ever. TE Connectivity, which is nominally based in Switzerland to reduce its U.S. taxes but run from offices in Berwyn, is one of Pennsylvania's largest industrial employer at its plants in the Harrisburg area (the former AMP). The company was spun off from Princeton-based Tyco International Ltd. in 2007.