• Washington Post, Tuesday, November 3, 2009 11:15 AM

Black & Decker and rival Stanley Works are merging in a $4.5 billion deal that puts under one corporate umbrella a number of familiar consumer brands: DeWalt, Kwikset and Price Pfister from 99-year-old Black & Decker, and Mac Tools, Stanley Security Solutions and FatMax from 166-year-old Stanley Works, V. Dion Haynes reports. Black & Decker is best known for its power tools, while Stanley is known for hand tools.

The deal, the largest in the consumer products sector this year, calls for combining Black & Decker's KwikSet business with Stanley Works' security business.

"The complementary product and market fit of these two companies creates significant value for both companies' shareholders that neither company can accomplish on a stand-alone basis," says Black & Decker CEO Nolan D. Archibald. Although both companies have been reeling from the recession, they maintain that higher motives drove the deal. "We serve many of the same customers, but we serve them very different products," says Stanley Works spokesman Tim Perra. "When we look at it, it's a match made in heaven."

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