Eaton Corporation, a manufacturer of power-management equipment including uninterruptible power supplies (UPSs), has agreed to acquire Wright Line, a manufacturer of enclosures, racks and airflow-management systems. Terms of the acquisition were not immediately disclosed, but a statement issued by Eaton said Wright Line's revenue over the past 12 months was $101 million. Wright Line employs 350. Eaton's 2009 sales were $11.9 billion, the company also said.
Eaton executive Jerry Whitaker, who runs the Americas region for the company's electrical sector, said the combination "creates a strong solution to help our customers deal with the challenges associated with energy efficiency, thermal managemetn and capital deployment." Other power-management providers such as APC and Emerson Network Power offer rack and cabinet systems as well, and this move by Eaton similarly rounds out their cadre of offerings. Over the past several years, the art and science of data center cooling has been evolving in the direction of cooling systems getting increasingly closer to heat sources. Termed by some "closely coupled cooling," the trend appears poised to continue and it makes logical sense that for providers of cooling technologies, the ability to also provide the equipment housing these heat sources is beneficial.
Late last year Wright Line's vice president of product development and services Carl Cottuli made a presentation on thermal management trends as part of a webcast seminar entitled "Data Center Cabling and Administration." You can view that webcast here.