Tyco post-split talk Part II: Are acquisitions in the air?

Here's Part II (I posted Part I yesterday) of a blog with some Tyco post-split details, which I found in the process of reviewing the Tyco International Conference Call. The call took place on the day that Tyco announced its plan to split into three publicly traded companies.

On that day, most of the industry, including yours truly, was running around the ASIS show floor. The quotes below are courtesy of Seeking Alpha.

Was the split construed to ready Fire & Security or ADT for acquisition? And, is there any government regulation that would preclude the acquisition of ADT or Commercial Fire and Security from taking place in the next 18 months?

Asked if Tyco had “not had substantive conversations with any outside parties about the sale of any of these businesses?” Tyco CEO Ed Breen said: “We are well aware of the laws and regulations out there and … we are very careful about what we do. So I will leave it at that.”
 
OK, well is there anything to preclude one of the entities from being acquired in the next 18 months?
“If anyone approaches us about a piece of the … our Board would have to take that under advisement. It is our fiduciary responsibility, but it is not our plan. Our plan is to get these out there on their own and let them play in the their industry,” Breen said.

Answering a question on a different topic, Breen said: “I'm a big believer that there going to be consolidation in these industries. I think you've already been watching some of that occur and we want our businesses to be able to play in that environment in their respective industries.”

Asked about the split between resi and commercial security, Breen said much of the separation has occurred already, when ADT split into residential and commercial divisions.

And, in terms of the monitoring operation, Breen said they have a plan about how to separate the two and “it's easier than it sounds.”

Whey didn't they bifurcate the two businesses back in 2006? The companies were too fragmented at that time, Breen said. “The management teams were more fragmented and there wasn't consistent performance.”