David Farr
Analyst · Vertical Research Partners
First of all, I'll come back to that question. The first comment I've made with long-term investments, I'm talking about technology investments, internal investments and also people investments. So we're in a mode right now. We were going through a mode -- our peak employment was 141,000. We went below 120,000, and now we're back up to over 130,000. And so the issue for me is I want to make sure we're investing right now, even though our underlying sales are still negative. We're investing in where that growth is going to come for us for the next six, 12, 18 months. So that's people investment and then also innovation to new products. That's the comment I am making. Because it's really easy to say, "Okay, let's wait until we see the really strong recovery happen, and then make those investments." But right now, the key issue for me is balance that margin expansion, which we have going on right now with flat or negative underlying sales and that's what's key for me at this point in time. Relative to acquisitions, we have a very formal process relative to what I call bolt-on acquisitions, which we did won today. We proved one today, and that type of return, typically, is going to be around a 15%, 16%, 17%, 14% return on total capital to us. And that's a return on investment over time. Our strategic acquisition is going to be, as I look at it, in the realm of 9% to 11%. It's a business that we know extremely well, and it will over time, accrete value. Not only in the acquisition, but in the core business that we're trying to expand into. And so that is how we look at the long-term strategic investment profile. When we made the Fisher acquisition, which many people thought was very expensive, it greatly increased our presence in the Process business and greatly increased the value of our total Process business. The Avocent transaction and the Chloride transaction will greatly increase the value of our business in the Network Power overtime. And so that's how we look at them, and then we oversee by country, sometimes we look at countries and we look at the cost of capital for various regions of the world and their risk profiles. That's how we go at it, Jeff.