Bosch & Freud

[Charlie Plesums]

On December 18 Bosch bought the Freud cutter (saw, router, shaper, drill) business, as announced by Greg Neer, Freud America director of sales (under Tom Walz's forum Membership). As I understand it, Freud will continue to sell their tools (routers, etc.) under their own brand. It appears that the Freud cutters will also continue to be sold under the Freud name.

I missed the original announcement, and just heard about the purchase. So far, (only a month later), it appears business as usual, and it appears that Charles M is still around and as helpful as ever. Any other input?

[Chris Padilla]

Do you have some concerns, Charlie, or just wanted to chat about this?

[Charlie Plesums]

I always have concerns when one company buys another, even if it is a good company buying a product line from another good company. In the tech world where I spent most of my career, purchases were often deadly.

I missed the initial announcement, but heard about it recently through the "news" channels (shows how timely the news can be). When I searched and found the brief discussion on this forum back in December, there seemed to be many questions that were then (or since) answered, such as Freud keeping their tools, and only selling their cutter business - for example, both companies would continue to sell routers. Charles M. seems to have been available since the change as our most helpful on-line consultant, but will this last? Will he be the Freud cutter consultant who no longer is involved with Freud tools?

As the info has evolved, I was wondering if anyone had seen any impact, or had any more information.

[Hank Knight]

Some years ago, Robert Bosch Corp. (Bosch) did an analysis of their market and found that they did not have a very large footprint in the consumer grade powertool arena. They bought Skill to fill the gap. I've never been a Skill user, so I can't speak from first-hand knowledge, but my impression is that Skill did not fare badly after the acquisition. Skill tools were available for a long time after Bosch bought the company. Somenone else may be able to comment on whether the quality of Skill tools has suffered or improved under Bosch Ownership. My guess is (and this is purely a guess) that Bosch felt it's cutter business was not as well developed in the comsumer/construction markets as they would like, so they bought Freud to beef it up.

I've done a lot of legal work for Bosch over the years and I have always been impressed with the company. I am not worried that Bosch will devalue or somehow damage Freud's products or it's standing in the market. If anything, the acquisition may help.

Hank