Stanley Works to sell CST/berger to Bosch

Tool giant Stanley Works has announced two deals to help limit its exposure to the U.S. housing market, including a deal to sell its CST/berger laser measuring business to Robert Bosch Tool for $205 million.

The company also announced plans to buy Sonitrol, the security monitoring company, for $275 million from an investment group comprised of three firms: Carlyle Group, Wachovia Capital Partners and Spire Capital Partners.

"These two transactions are important steps toward advancing our growth strategy and repositioning the company to be less dependent on construction and DIY markets,” said John Lundgren, chairman and CEO of Stanley Works. “We continue to be strongly committed to shifting the company's portfolio into higher-growth, higher-return areas such as electronic security. The addition of Sonitrol, with its iconic brand and strong franchisee and direct sales network, expands the scale of our existing North American monitoring operation.”

In addition to the two transactions, Stanley said it is “developing plans to exit several small, non-strategic product lines during the remainder of the year with associated revenues of approximately $60 million.”

Details of those smaller product lines were not announced and have yet to be finalized, the company said.