I don't have an MBA (or a BA, for that matter), but it still strikes me as weird that United Technologies is buying Diebold, and for 66% above market value at that. Who wants to own a company that millions of people consider the main actor in a coup?
I would expect the opposite trend to be true: don't companies spin off divisions with bad reputations, and try to buy out tiny companies that make shareholders smile? BP did it with their 'greenwashing' campaign, in which they spent more money rebranding themselves as a green power company than they did investing in green power assets.
I'm just left asking what the United Technologies board was thinking -- my best guess:
United Technologies Corp., the maker of Otis elevators and Chubb security systems, said today it offered to buy Diebold Inc. for $2.63 billion, taking its bid public after the automated-teller machine maker's board declined to discuss a combination for two years.
This probably started out as someone's good idea five years ago, and it's since acquired consultants and bankers and committees and research reports and enough momentum to be unstoppable, however foolish it may actually be.