Now this is a BIG DEAL

Well just when you thought we were in a quiet news cycle, Alcoa goes out and buys TRACO. Well that spices things up! This is a very interesting deal on many levels. Alcoa which owns the Kawneer powerhouse now has added a very prominent piece to their puzzle. This without question makes an already very good company, better and raises the stakes on the rest of the industry to see who does what next. Plus it also shows that even though the economy is tight that negotiations are going on and deals are being worked on. The other angle is now Kawneer gets to inherit the home of one of the main people who helped push the NFRC debacle on us. I wonder how that position will be going forward, though the damage from the NFRC side is pretty much done. End of the day though this is a huge deal and maybe the start of many others to follow…

Elsewhere…

-- I did take last week off… the first time that I can remember since starting this blog adventure that I skipped a weekly update. Thanks to all that wrote or called to see if I was still alive. The comical part is last Tuesday my phone went on the blink and if you called me you couldn’t even leave a message… so I had an air of mystery about me… no blog… no phone… etc. Anyway I am here still plugging away…

-- Did you happen to catch the depressing news on the ABI? A brutal May total has many scratching their heads… I think the interesting thing is to see if June bounces back or not… it’s a wait and see. Or maybe every architect just read Paul Krugman’s piece in the NYT that stated a third depression is imminent. Either way it’s one to watch.

-- Both PPG and Guardian both had announcements on their various Solar Mirror programs. To me that is a great sign that the solar side continues to move forward. Like everything in our world, things come out with a massive flash (Solar and BIM as great examples) and then they settle down quite a bit. But eventually if they are worthwhile efforts they bubble back to the top. We are seeing it with BIM and with last week’s dueling announcements I think we are seeing the start of it with Solar.

-- Speaking of Solar I wish I could be at the GANA Solar Symposium this week but I have jury duty… seriously… I wish I could get on a trial where some third party group is being accused of ripping off a manufacturer… anyway I am looking forward to doing my civic duty.

-- TV Alert- ESPN has this wonderful documentary series called “30 for 30” celebrating their 30th anniversary with 30 documentaries on subjects that happened in the last 30 years. The last two have been UNREAL. “June 17, 1994” and “The Two Escobars” are absolute much watches. You may be able to buy them from Amazon or rent from Netflix if you can’t find them coming up- but they are simply television at its best.

-- Lost in the shuffle of my week “off” was the announcement of the changes at the top of AGC here in America. I wonder what major changes will happen and how the culture will be affected. Also what effects to the product lines or fabrication side are in store? And how quickly will any changes happen? Hopefully one change is not yanking their folks from working with the industry trades.... It was nice to finally have some AGC representation at BEC this year.

-- Overdue congrats to two very talented gentlemen in our industry…. Kirk Johnson (now with Vitro) and Steve Martin (now with OldcastleBE) both have new gigs and both are tremendously talented guys whose new companies should be commended for adding them. Props to all involved and best of luck at your new gigs!

-- My daughter with her France pick in the World Cup proves that she needs to stick with horses… my gosh France was so bad you woulda though that I picked them!

-- Last, Happy Independence Day to all… and try during this holiday to send positive thoughts and prayers to those brave men and women fighting to protect our freedoms all over the world.

Let’s go to the links….

-- The Paul Krugman depression story… read this only if you want to be VERY depressed about the economy.

-- Interesting story on insider stock picking with Lenny Dykstra and Jim Cramer of CNBC

Video of the Week:

After reading the depressing Krugman piece we have to lighten it up and we’ll do so with this crazy video from some random Home Shopping network and watching a demo go sooooo wrong…. Let’s keep this guy away from all XYZ cutters too…