Air Liquide set sights on acquisition

A revitalized logo dressed up with a trademark symbol; now representing our brand of mixtures instead of the company

Until a few years ago we were Scott Specialty Gases, and had been since the 60s. We were privately owned, about 500 people strong and had earned a reputation in the spec gas industry for making gas mixtures that were dead-on accurate. For those of you who aren’t completely sure of what people do with spec gas: they mostly calibrate instruments with them. That or make stuff, like semiconductors. Unless you know the EXACT composition of the gas mix you use to calibrate your instrument, you won’t be sure your instrument is giving you accurate readings. Make sense?

If you’re an Acid Rain utility calibrating a Continuous Emission Monitor (CEM) and your numbers are bogus, you risk serious fines levied by the EPA, not to mention really bad press and maybe even jail time. If you’re calibrating a detector used to detect toxic gas before entering a manhole (excuse me: personhole—old habits die hard), inaccurate calibration can quite literally be a matter of life and death. Thus, it’s why we at Scott took the makings of our spec gas VERY seriously, and why we enjoyed the reputation of being a (if not THE) world leader in specialty gases.

That’s also why when Air Liquide went into expansion mode, they set their sights on acquiring Scott. Eventually the timing became right. Park City ski slopes were calling our owner, who was already well into retirement age, and I guess the $$$ was right, and so a deal was cut. Mind you, I said we were less than 500 people strong in the US, UK and Netherlands. Air Liquide had at the time about 42,000 employees throughout over 70 countries. (Latest count is 43,000 in 75 countries.) Now I ask you, what would YOU think in this situation?