Honeywell International Inc. is an American public company, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building automation, industrial automation, and energy and sustainability solutions (ESS). Honeywell also owns and operates Sandia National Laboratories under contract with the U.S. Department of Energy. Honeywell is a Fortune 500 company, ranked 115th in 2023. In 2024, the corporation had a global workforce of approximately 102,000 employees. As of 2025, the current chairman and chief executive officer is Vimal Kapur.
The corporation's name, Honeywell International Inc., is a product of the merger of Honeywell Inc. and AlliedSignal in 1999. The corporation headquarters were consolidated with AlliedSignal's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey. The combined company chose the name "Honeywell" because of the considerable brand recognition. Honeywell was a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average index from 1999 to 2008. Prior to 1999, its corporate predecessors were included dating back to 1925, including early entrants in the computing and thermostat industries.
In 2020, Honeywell rejoined the Dow Jones Industrial Average index. In 2021, it moved its stock listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq.
In 2025, Honeywell announced it would split into three companies: Honeywell Automation, Honeywell Aerospace, and Honeywell Advanced Materials. It has been estimated that the aerospace and automation businesses could be worth as much as $104 billion and $94 billion, respectively, after the split.
As the years passed, CTCC struggled with debt and the company underwent several name changes. After it was renamed the Electric Heat Regulator Company in 1893, W.R. Sweatt, a stockholder in the company, was sold "an extensive list of patents" and named secretary-treasurer. By 1900, Sweatt had bought out the remaining shares of the company from the other stockholders.
In 1929, combined assets were valued at over $3.5 million, with less than $1 million in liabilities just months before Black Monday. In 1931, Minneapolis-Honeywell began a period of expansion and acquisition when they purchased the Time-O-Stat Controls Company, giving the company access to a greater number of patents for their controls systems.
W.R. Sweatt and his son Harold provided 75 years of uninterrupted leadership for the company. W.R. Sweatt survived rough spots and turned an innovative idea – thermostatic heating control – into a thriving business.
1934 marked Minneapolis-Honeywell's first foray into the international market, when they acquired the Brown Instrument Company and inherited their relationship with the Yamatake Company of Tokyo, a Japan-based distributor. Later in 1934, Minneapolis-Honeywell started distributorships across Canada, as well as one in the Netherlands, their first European office. This expansion into international markets continued in 1936, with their first distributorship in London, as well as their first foreign assembly facility being established in Canada. By 1937, ten years after the merger, Minneapolis-Honeywell had over 3,000 employees, with $16 million in annual revenue.
The C-1 revolutionized precision bombing and was ultimately used on the two B-29 bombers that dropped atomic bombs on Japan in 1945. The success of these projects led Minneapolis-Honeywell to open an Aero division in Chicago on October 5, 1942. This division was responsible for the development of the formation stick to control autopilots, more accurate fuel quantity indicators for aircraft, and the turbo supercharger.
In 1950, Minneapolis-Honeywell's Aero division was contracted for the controls on the first US nuclear submarine, USS Nautilus. In 1951, the company acquired Intervox Company for their sonar, ultrasonic, and telemetry technologies. Honeywell also helped develop and manufacture the RUR-5 ASROC for the US Navy.
From the 1950s until the mid-1970s, Honeywell was the United States' importer of Japanese company Asahi Optical's Pentax cameras and photographic equipment. These products were labeled "Heiland Pentax" and "Honeywell Pentax" in the U.S. In 1953, Honeywell introduced their most famous product, the T-86 Round thermostat.
In 1961, James H. Binger became Honeywell's president and in 1965 its chairman. Binger revamped the company sales approach, placing emphasis on profits rather than on volume. He stepped up the company's international expansion – it had six plants producing 12% of the company's revenue. He officially changed the company's corporate name from "Minneapolis-Honeywell Regulator Co." to "Honeywell", to better represent their colloquial name. Throughout the 1960s, Honeywell continued to acquire other businesses, including Security Burglar Alarm Company in 1969.
In the 1970s, after one member of a group called FREEBruce Johasen, "Out of Silence", Minnesota History (Spring 2019), 189:
on the Minneapolis campus (U of M) of the University of MinnesotaNeal R. Peirce, "The Great Plains States of America: People, Politics, and Power in the Nine Great Plains States", George J. McLeod (1973), 145; available online, accessed February 7, 2014 asked five major companies with local offices to explain their attitudes toward gay men and women, three responded quickly,Anon., "Three big companies say they hire Gays", The Advocate (30 September 1970). insisting that they did not discriminate against gay people in their hiring policies. Only Honeywell objected to hiring gay people.Sources: Michael McConnell Files, "Full Equality, a diary" (volumes 1a - d), Tretter Collection in GLBT Studies, U of M Libraries.
Later in the 1970s, when faced with a denial of access to students, Honeywell "quietly reversed its hiring policy".Lars Bjornson, "A quiet win: Honeywell yields", The Advocate (10 April 1974), 13.
The beginning of the 1970s saw Honeywell focus on process controls, with Honeywell merging their computer operations with GE's information systems in 1970, and later acquiring GE's process control business. With the acquisition, Honeywell took over responsibility for GE's ongoing Multics operating system project. The design and features of Multics greatly influenced the Unix operating system. Multics influenced many of the features of Honeywell/GE's GECOS and GCOS8 General Comprehensive Operating System operating systems. Honeywell, Groupe Bull, and Control Data Corporation formed a joint venture in Magnetic Peripherals Inc. which became a major player in the hard disk drive market.
Honeywell was the worldwide leader in 14-inch disk drive technology in the OEM marketplace in the 1970s and early 1980s, especially with its SMD (Storage Module Drive) and CMD (Cartridge Module Drive). In the second half of the 1970s, Honeywell started to look to international markets again, acquiring the French Compagnie Internationale pour l’Informatique in 1976. In 1984, Honeywell formed Honeywell High Tech Trading to lease their foreign marketing and distribution to other companies abroad, in order to establish a better position in those markets. Under Binger's stewardship from 1961 to 1978 he expanded the company into such fields as defense, aerospace, and computing.
During and after the Vietnam Era, Honeywell's defense division produced a number of products, including cluster bombs, missile guidance systems, napalm, and land mines. Minnesota-Honeywell Corporation completed flight tests on an inertia guidance sub-system for the X-20 project at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, utilizing an NF-101B Voodoo by August 1963. The X-20 project was canceled in December 1963."Fiery Crash of Drone Plane Kills Two, Injures One – Four Firemen Overcome In Wake Of Blaze." Playground Daily News (Fort Walton Beach, Florida), Volume 16, Number 271, August 20, 1963, p. 1. The Honeywell project, founded in 1968, organized protests against the company to persuade it to abandon weapons productionState ex rel. Pillsbury v. Honeywell, Inc., Minnesota Supreme Court, 1971 [3]
In 1980, Honeywell bought Incoterm Corporation to compete in both the airline reservations system networks and bank teller markets.
Honeywell purchased minicomputer pioneer Computer Control Corporation (3C's) in 1966, renaming it as Honeywell's Computer Control Division. Through most of the 1960s, Honeywell was one of the "BUNCH" of computing. IBM was "Snow White", while the dwarfs were the seven significantly smaller computer companies: Burroughs, Control Data Corporation, General Electric, Honeywell, NCR Corporation, RCA, and UNIVAC. Later, when their number had been reduced to five, they were known as "The BUNCH", after their initials: Burroughs, UNIVAC, NCR, Control Data Corporation, and Honeywell.or DeBUNCH with Digital Equipment Corporation/DEC as the industry's #2.
In 1970, Honeywell acquired GE's computer business, rebadging General Electric's 600-series mainframes to Honeywell 6000 series computers, supporting GCOS, Multics, and CP-6, while forming Honeywell Information Systems.*https://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=227
From 1974 to 1987, under the leadership of CEO Edson W. Spencer, the company began a shift away from computers and focused instead on aeronautics and industrial technology.
In 1975, it purchased Xerox Data Systems, whose Sigma computers had a small but loyal customer base. Some of Honeywell's systems were , such as their Series 60 Model 6 and Model 62 and their Honeywell 200. The latter was an attempt to penetrate the IBM 1401 market. In 1987, HIS merged with Groupe Bull, a global joint venture with Compagnie des Machines Bull of France and NEC Corporation of Japan to become Honeywell Bull. In 1988 Honeywell Bull was consolidated into Groupe Bull and in 1989 renamed to Bull, a Worldwide Information Systems Company. By 1991, Honeywell was no longer involved in the computer business.
Honeywell is in the consortium that runs the Pantex that assembles all of the in the United States arsenal. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, successor to the defense products of AlliedSignal, operates the Kansas City Plant which produces and assembles 85 percent of the non-nuclear components of the bombs.
The corporate headquarters were consolidated to AlliedSignal's headquarters in Morristown, New Jersey, rather than Honeywell's former headquarters in Minneapolis, Minnesota. When Honeywell closed its corporate headquarters in Minneapolis, over one thousand employees lost their jobs. A few moved to Morristown or other company locations, but the majority were forced to find new jobs or retire. Soon after the merger, the company's stock fell significantly, and did not return to its pre-merger level until 2007.
In 2000, the new Honeywell acquired Pittway for $2.2 billion to gain a greater share of the fire-protection and security systems market, and merged it into their Home and Building Control division, taking on Pittway's $167 million in debt. Analyst David Jarrett commented that "while Honeywell offered a hefty premium, it's still getting Pittway for a bargain" at $45.50 per share, despite closing at $29 the week before. Pittway's Ademco products complemented Honeywell's existing unified controls systems.
US regulators disagreed, finding that the merger would improve competition and reduce prices; United States Assistant Attorney General Charles James called the EU's decision "antithetical to the goals of antitrust law enforcement." This led to a drop in morale and general tumult throughout Honeywell. The then-CEO Michael Bonsignore was fired as Honeywell looked to turn their business around.
In February 2002, Honeywell's board appointed their next CEO and chairman, David M. Cote. Since 2002, Honeywell has made more than 80 acquisitions and 60 divestitures, and increasing its labor force to 131,000 as a result of these acquisitions. Honeywell's stock nearly tripled from $35.23 in April 2002 to $99.39 in January 2015.
Honeywell made a £1.2bn ($2.3bn) bid for Novar plc in December 2004.The offer was £798m or £1.85 per share for each Novar share, with another £331m for preference shares and debt. The acquisition was finalized in March 2005. In October 2005, Honeywell bought out Dow's 50% stake in Honeywell UOP for $825 million, giving them complete control over the joint venture in petrochemical and refining technology. In May 2010, Honeywell outbid UK-based Cinven and acquired the French company Sperian Protection for $1.4 billion, which was then incorporated into its automation and controls safety unit.
In December 2015, Honeywell acquired Elster for US$5.1B, entering the space of gas, electricity, and water meters with a specific focus on smart meters. Honeywell International Inc. then acquired the 30% stake in UOP Russell LLC it didn't own already for roughly $240 million in January 2016.Tess Stynes, The Wall Street Journal. “ Honeywell Buys Remaining UOP Russell Stake for $240 Million .” Jan 6, 2016. Jan 8, 2016.
In April 2016, Honeywell acquired Xtralis, a provider of aspirating smoke detection, perimeter security technologies, and video analytics software, for $480 million, from funds advised by Pacific Equity Partners and Blum Capital Partners.Street Insider. “ Honeywell (HON) Announces Completion of $480M Xtralis Acquisition .” April 1, 2016. April 1, 2016. In May 2016, Honeywell International Inc. settled its patent dispute regarding Google subsidiary Nest Labs, whose thermostats Honeywell claimed infringed on several of its patents. Google parent Alphabet Inc. and Honeywell said they reached a "patent cross-license" agreement that "fully resolves" the long-standing dispute. Honeywell sued Nest Labs in 2012.Joshua Jamerson, The Wall Street Journal. “ Honeywell, Google Settle Lawsuit Over Nest Labs Thermostat .” May 6, 2016. May 9, 2016. In 2017, Honeywell opened a new software center in Atlanta, Georgia.
David Cote stepped down as CEO on April 1, 2017, and was succeeded by Darius Adamczyk, who had been promoted to president and chief operating officer (COO) in 2016. Cote served as executive chairman until April 2018. In October 2017, Honeywell announced plans to spin off its Homes, ADI Global Distribution, and Transportation Systems businesses into two separate, publicly traded companies by the end of 2018.PR Newswire. “ Honeywell Announces Planned Portfolio Changes .” October 10, 2017.
In 2018, Honeywell spun off both Honeywell Turbo Technologies, now Garrett Advancing Motion, and its consumer products business, Resideo. Both companies are publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. For the fiscal year 2019, Honeywell reported net income of US$6.230 billion, with an annual revenue of US$36.709 billion, a decrease of 19.11% over the previous fiscal cycle. Honeywell's market capitalization was valued at over US$113.25 billion in September 2020.
Honeywell relocated its corporate headquarters in October 2019 to Charlotte, North Carolina. In July 2019, Honeywell moved employees into a temporary headquarters building in Charlotte before their new building was complete.
In 2020, Honeywell Forge launched as an analytics platform software for industrial and commercial applications such as aircraft, building, industrial, worker and cyber-security. In collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University National Robotics Engineering Center, the Honeywell Robotics was created in Pittsburgh to focus on supply chain transformation. The Honeywell robotic unloader grabs packages in tractor-trailers then places them on conveyor belts for handlers to sort.
In May 2019, GoDirect Trade launched as an online marketplace for surplus aircraft parts such as engines, electronics, and APU parts. In March 2020, Honeywell announced that its quantum computer is based on trapped ions. Its expected quantum volume is at least 64, which Honeywell's CEO called the world's most powerful quantum computer. In November 2021, Honeywell announced the spinoff of its quantum division into a separate company named "Quantinuum".
In March 2023, Honeywell announced Vimal Kapur as its next CEO, effective June 1, 2023. In December 2023, Honeywell acquired Carrier Global's security business.
In February 2024, Honeywell filed a lawsuit against Lone Star Aerospace, Inc., alleging that their software products infringe on five patents.
On October 1, 2024, Honeywell partnered with Google to integrate data with generative AI with an aim to streamline autonomous operations for its customers.
On October 8, 2024, it was announced that the company's advanced materials division would be spun-off into a new company.
On February 6, 2025, it was announced that Honeywell would be spun-off into three independent companies after activist investor Elliott Investment Management who is in favor of the split took a major stake in the company. With its aerospace, automation, and previously announced advanced materials segments being split into separate companies.
On May 22, 2025, the company announced it was acquiring Johnson Matthey's Catalyst Technologies arm for £1.8 billion.
Several state governments contracted Honeywell to produce N95 particulate-filtering face masks during the pandemic. The North Carolina Task Force for Emergency Repurposing of Manufacturing (TFERM) awarded Honeywell a contract for the monthly delivery of 100,000 N95 masks. In April 2020, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti announced a deal with Honeywell to produce 24 million N95 masks to distribute to healthcare workers and first responders.
In May 2020, United States President Donald Trump visited the Honeywell Aerospace Technologies facility in Phoenix, where he acknowledged the "incredibly patriotic and hard-working men and women of Honeywell" for making N95 masks and referred to the company's production as a "miraculous achievement".
In April 2021, Will.i.am and Honeywell collaborated on Xupermask, a mask made of silicon and athletic mesh fabric that has LED lights, 3-speed fans and noise-canceling headphones in the mask.
In November 2024, Honeywell announced its intention to sell its personal protective equipment business to Protective Industrial Products for almost $1.33 billion in cash. The sale of this PPE business is expected to close by the first half of 2025.
After the divestment of PPE business, the company is planning to retain its gas detection portfolio.
Honeywell Aerospace Technologies provides avionics, aircraft engines, flight management systems, and service solutions to manufacturers, airlines, airport operations, militaries, and space programs. It comprises Commercial Aviation, Defense & Space, and Business & General Aviation.
In July 2014, Honeywell's Transportation Systems merged with the Aerospace division due to similarities between the businesses. In April 2018, Honeywell announced to develop laser communication products for satellite communication in collaboration with Ball Aerospace and plans future volume production. In June 2018 Honeywell spun off and rebranded its Transportation Systems as Garrett.
Building Automation and Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions were created when Automation and Control Solutions was split into two in July 2016. Building Automation comprises Honeywell Building Solutions, Environmental and Energy Solutions, and Honeywell Security and Fire. In December 2017, Honeywell announced that it had acquired SCAME, an Italy-based company, to add new fire and gas safety capabilities to its portfolio. Honeywell Safety and Productivity Solutions comprises Scanning & Mobility, Sensing and Internet of Things, and Industrial safety.
Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies comprises six business units: Honeywell UOP, Honeywell Process Solutions, Fluorine Products, Electronic Materials, Resins & Chemicals, and Specialty Materials. Products include process technology for oil and gas processing, fuels, films and additives, special chemicals, electronic materials, and renewable transport fuels.
In 2003, a federal judge in Newark, New Jersey, ordered the company to perform an estimated $400 million environmental remediation of chromium waste, citing "a substantial risk of imminent damage to public health and safety and imminent and severe damage to the environment." In 2003, Honeywell paid $3.6 million to avoid a federal trial regarding its responsibility for trichloroethylene contamination in Lisle, Illinois."Chemical Company Pays $3.6 Mil. to Settle Suits", Chicago Sun-Times, September 6, 2003 qtd. in knowmore.org In 2004, the State of New York announced that it would require Honeywell to complete an estimated $448 million cleanup of more than 74,000 kg (165,000 lbs) of mercury and other toxic waste dumped into Onondaga Lake in Syracuse, New York, from a former Allied Chemical property.
Honeywell established three water treatment plants by November 2014. The chemicals cleanup site removed 7 tons of mercury. In November 2015, Audubon New York gave the Thomas W. Keesee Jr. Conservation Award to Honeywell for its cleanup efforts in “one of the most ambitious environmental reclamation projects in the United States.” By December 2017, Honeywell completed dredging the lake. Later in December, the Department of Justice filed a settlement requiring Honeywell to pay a separate $9.5 million in damages, as well build 20 restoration projects on the shore to help repair the greater area surrounding the lake.
In 2005, the state of New Jersey sued Honeywell, Occidental Petroleum, and PPG Industries to compel cleanup of more than 100 sites contaminated with chromium, a metal linked to lung cancer, peptic ulcer, and dermatitis. In 2008, the state of Arizona made a settlement with Honeywell to pay a $5 million fine and contribute $1 million to a local air-quality cleanup project, after allegations of breaking water-quality and hazardous-waste laws on hundreds of occasions between 1974 and 2004.
In 2006, Honeywell announced that its decision to stop manufacturing had resulted in reductions of more than 11,300 kg (24,900 lb) of mercury, 2,800 kg (6,200 lb) of lead, and 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) of chromic acid usage. The largest reduction represents 5% of mercury use in the United States. The EPA acknowledged Honeywell's leadership in reducing mercury use through a 2006 National Partnership for Environmental Priorities (NPEP) Achievement Award for discontinuing the manufacturing of mercury switches.[14]
Honeywell has also been criticized in the past for its manufacture of deadly and maiming weapons, such as cluster bombs.
/ref> In 1973, they shipped a high speed non-impact printer called the Honeywell Page Printing System.
1985–1999 integrations
Aerospace and defense
Home and building controls
Industrial control
1999–2002 merger, takeovers
AlliedSignal and Pittway
General Electric Company
2002–2014 acquisitions and further expansion
2015–present
COVID-19 pandemic
Business groups
Corporate governance
Acquisitions since 2002
Ballard Unmanned Systems AT Rebellion Photonics SPS SCAME Sistemi BA FLUX SPS RSI BA Intelligrated SPS Xtralis BA Movilizer SPS UOP Russell LLC PMT Elster PMT Aviaso AT Datamax-O'Neil SPS Intermec SPS RAE Systems SPS InnCom BA Thomas Russell LLC PMT Iris Systems BA Kings Safety Shoes SPS Matrikon PMT E-Mon BA Sperian SPS Cythos SPS Energy Services Group, LLC PMT Metrologic SPS IAC AT Callidus PMT Norcross SPS Dimensions Int'l AT ActiveEye SPS Burtek PMT Ex-Or BA Enraf Holdings B.V. SPS Handheld Products SPS Maxon Corporation PMT First Technology SPS Gardiner Group BA Novar Controls BA Zellweger SPS Lebow SPS Friedland BA InterCorr International, Inc. SPS Tridium, Inc. BA Genesis Cable BA HomMed, LLC SPS Aube Technologies BA Vindicator BA Electro-Radiation Incorporated (ERI) AT Edgelinx BA GEM Microelectronics PMT Sensotec SPS Baker Electronics AT Gamewell BA Olympo BA FutureSmart BA Kolon Films PMT Betatech BA Chadwick Helmuth AT Ultrak BA Mora Moravia AT Shanghai Alarm BA
Environmental issues
Criticism
Allegations of involvement in Gaza
See also
Explanatory notes
External links
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