A new Honeywell acquisition has ecommerce implications. The company is betting big on heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), as well as building automation trends.

The $4.95 billion all-cash deal will see Honeywell absorb Carrier Global Corp’s global access solutions business. Moreover, the Honeywell acquisition could give the new parent company a bigger but still developing leg up in HVAC ecommerce.

On Friday, Honeywell announced the agreement to buy the Carrier unit, which generated $13.4 billion in total HVAC sales in 2022, or about two-thirds of all its 2022 sales of about $20 billion.

“Honeywell’s strong track record delivering building automation products and services makes this a natural fit that will create a leading security platform with forecasted annual revenue in excess of $1 billion,” says Honeywell CEO Vimal Kapul. “By leveraging the capabilities of the combined company’s advanced security and safety systems, customers will be able to maximize their performance, efficiency and cost-effectiveness and create long-term, sustainable value.”

Honeywell acquisition

Honeywell, which did about $6 billion in sales in 2022, is acquiring one of its key competitors. The deal, which it says will close in the third quarter of 2024, will strengthen the company’s ecommerce base. In addition, the Honeywell acquisition will also see the LenelS2, Onity and Supra brands leave Carrier for their new home.

Carrier, which says it operates 500 distribution centers, is a relative newcomer to some aspects of ecommerce. Its efforts include both business-to-consumer (B2C) and business-to-business (B2B) marketplaces.

In 2021, Carrier launched CarrieratHome.com, its first ecommerce system, selling air monitors, purifiers and related products to contractors and consumers.

In December 2022, Carrier also launched a B2B marketplace initiative with Amazon Web Services. The collaboration agreement with AWS enables Carrier to sell more Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and services on AWS Marketplace. That includes offerings for HVAC performance, sustainability, safety and security.

“Carrier is already delivering digital solutions to its building and cold chain customers on AWS, and we see tremendous industry opportunities to do even more together,” said Bobby George, Carrier senior vice president and chief digital officer. “The strategic collaboration agreement between Carrier and AWS is a multi-year engagement that brings investments together to accelerate our digital capabilities, our go-to-market initiatives and deliver even more value to our customers through digital solutions.”

Carrier’s ecommerce system runs on a Shopify program, Ernst & Young, which assisted with systems integration and consulting. In the existing B2B channels, order fulfillment cycle time decreased from 14 days to three days. Sales, meanwhile, increased 40% year-over-year, according to Ernst & Young.

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