Cooper Industries and Danaher Corp. recently announced they would be merging their tool businesses in a joint venture. The soon-to-be CEO of the new joint venture, which is expected to close by the end of the second quarter, spoke to MDM about why the tool businesses were a good fit, and how the deal will impact distributors.

Danaher Corp. and Cooper Industries will be entering a joint venture to combine their Danaher Tool Group and Cooper Tools businesses. Danaher Tool Group executive Steve Breitzka, who will lead the joint venture when it closes at the end of second quarter, said that current market conditions provided …