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Honeywell to split in three after pressure from activist investor Elliott Management
‘Barron’s Roundtable’ panelists react to Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos’ experiments in space travel.
- Industrial and aerospace giant Honeywell said on Thursday it will split into three independently listed companies.
- Honeywell said it will separate its aerospace and automation businesses into separate entities, alongside its previously announced spin-off of the advanced materials unit.
- Honeywell said it intends to complete the separation in the second half of 2026, which would be tax-free for its shareholders.
Honeywell said on Thursday it will split into three independently listed companies, breaking up one of America’s last standing conglomerates just months after activist investor Elliott Management took a $5 billion stake in the industrial giant.

Honeywell’s shares, however, fell nearly 2.5% in premarket trade, reversing course from early gains after the company forecast downbeat sales and profit for 2025.

The company said it will separate its aerospace and automation businesses into separate entities, alongside its previously announced spin-off of the advanced materials unit.

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With Honeywell’s decision, the ranks of the nation’s leading industrial conglomerates have dwindled even further, following similar choices in recent years by 3M, General Electric and United Technologies to split off major divisions.

The industrial and aerospace giant has been on a deal-making spree under CEO Vimal Kapur, shedding assets that are not focused on the aviation, automation and energy sectors.

Despite several smaller moves, Elliott, whose stake in Honeywell is its largest single investment, argued the company needed to split.

An aircraft engine is tested at Honeywell Aerospace in Phoenix, Arizona, on September 6, 2016. Honeywell announced that it will split into three separate companies. (Reuters/Alwyn Scott/File Photo / Reuters)

Honeywell attracted Elliott’s attention as its stock price underperformed the market. Its shares had risen 7.7% in 2024 until November 11, a day before Elliott disclosed its position, while the broader market had gained 26.6% in the same period.

Analysts had previously estimated Honeywell’s high-margin aerospace business could be worth between $90 billion and $120 billion, including debt.

The airline industry, faced with a shortage of new jets, has had to resort to flying older, more maintenance-intensive planes during a travel boom, pushing up sales for players such as Honeywell that provide aftermarket services and parts.

The aerospace unit is Honeywell’s biggest revenue generator, accounting for about 40% of the company’s total revenue in 2024, and counts Boeing and Airbus among its customers. It also has contracts with the U.S. government, providing communication and navigation systems, among other services.

Honeywell said it will separate its aerospace, automation and advanced materials units into three distinct entities. (Reuters/Denis Balibouse/File Photo / Reuters)

Honeywell had announced plans to spin off its advanced materials unit into a publicly traded company in October. It said in December it was considering a spinoff of its aerospace business, after Elliott’s push.

The company said it intends to complete the separation in the second half of 2026, which would be tax-free for its shareholders.

Elliott’s push is not the first time Honeywell has faced activist pressure to break up the company. In 2017, it managed to shrug off Daniel Loeb’s Third Point, which urged the company to spin off its aerospace division.

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The industrial giant has been pruning its portfolio through a string of divestments and acquisitions, but such a large break-up would be a first for the more than 100-year-old company.

It separately forecast an adjusted profit per share of between $10.10 and $10.50 for 2025, falling short of analysts’ average estimate of $10.93 according to data compiled by LSEG.

Its sales expectations of between $39.6 billion and $40.6 billion for the year also fell short of Wall Street expectations of $41.22 billion.
February 6, 2025
Stacey Abrams-founded voter activist group hit with mass layoffs after record-breaking ethics fine

A nonprofit voter engagement group founded by high-profile Georgia perennial candidate Stacey Abrams reportedly suffered dozens of layoffs two weeks after facing a six-figure state ethics fine for campaign finance violations.

Scores of workers at the New Georgia Project (NGP) have been laid off since Dec. 27, with a dozen more being pink-slipped at the end of January, according to FOX 5 Atlanta.

The group describes itself as a “nonpartisan effort to register, civically engage, and build power with the New Georgia Majority… the growing population of Black, brown, young and other historically marginalized voters.”

It received attention for helping Democrats flip Georgia in 2020 – when Republicans lost both the presidency and its two Senate seats within three months’ time.

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A sign welcomes travelers to the Peach State at the I-20 East Welcome Center near Tallapoosa, Georgia, on Oct. 3, 2022. (Charlie Creitz)

NGP could not be reached by phone and did not respond to a comment request through its contact form.

However, a GoFundMe for affected employees set up by NGP policy director Stephanie Ali described the layoffs and said those subject to the latest round had only three days’ notice.

The GoFundMe description said the NGP “has stated these reductions in force (RIFs) are due to economic downturns, reductions in fundraising in an ‘off’ election year, and other contributing factors.”

Last month, the state ethics commission found both the organization and its political action fund unlawfully performed work for Abrams’ 2018 gubernatorial bid while failing to report donations and expenditures.

The Georgia Ethics Commission probed the groups and discovered more than $7 million combined was raised for Abrams – a former state House minority leader from Atlanta – and others that cycle.

It administered a Peach State record $300,000 fine via a settlement that involved admission of 16 examples of illegal activity, according to Atlanta News First.

The panel also found that the groups stepped out of legal bounds in connection to a 2019 voter referendum aimed at expanding transit services in Gwinnett County, Georgia’s second-most populous county after Fulton, which includes Atlanta.

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Abrams founded the NGP in 2014, but told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that she left the group in 2017 when she decided to run against now-Gov. Brian Kemp.

“The setbacks at NGP are disappointing, and my thoughts are with those laid off,” she told the paper’s “Politically Georgia” vertical. “Regardless of [NGP’s] structure, I will never stop believing in the mission of ensuring every Georgian can make their voice heard.”

After Abrams’ departure, Ebenezer Baptist Church Rev. Raphael Warnock led the group until 2019. Fox News Digital reached out to the now-Democratic U.S. senator for his reaction.

Cody Hall, a senior advisor to Kemp, told Fox News Digital he wondered: “What did Stacey Abrams know and when did she know it?”

“Abrams founded NGP, her people ran it for years, and we’re all supposed to believe she knew nothing? Give us a break,” Hall said.

“Everything we said for the last 10 years about Abrams and her organization was true.”

When asked for comment, Lt. Gov. Burt Jones slammed Abrams for using “activists in the mainstream media to try to pull the wool over Georgians’ eyes.”

The likely future candidate for higher office added Abrams was “embarrassed” by Kemp two cycles in a row and is “embarrassed again” that her group’s “illegal grift is being exposed.”

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“The people of Georgia are good judges of character, and the liberal national media are not. Stacey Abrams will go down as one of the biggest frauds in the history of Georgia politics, but I have no doubt the media will learn nothing from this,” Jones said.

“We as Georgia Republicans must stay ready to defeat whoever the next Marxist grifter is in 2026.”

Georgia’s Republican Senate President John F. Kennedy called the NGP news “the tip of the iceberg” for Abrams.

“How many more millions will she fleece from donors to enrich herself or skirt campaign finance rules until the spigot turns off?”

Georgia Senate Minority Leader Harold Jones II, a Democrat, declined comment.

According to Atlanta’s FOX affiliate, NGP helped 55,000 Georgians register to vote, more than 80% of whom were Black and 40% were ages 18-25.

Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.

He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.

Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.

Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to [email protected].

February 3, 2025
‘Important lesson’: Conservative activist reveals ‘fascinating’ experience at liberal Sundance Film Festival

A documentary about bridging the political divide in one of the most hotly contested battleground counties in the United States debuted at the Sundance Film Festival this week, leading some to conclude that the historically liberal festival is moving toward the center.

“One of the things that is fascinating about ‘Bucks County, USA’ being chosen as an official selection at Sundance is it appears, in the era of Trump being re-elected, the well-known left-leaning Sundance Film Festival is moving to the middle,” Paul Martino said. “There is a new openness to dialogue,”

Martino, the founder of Bullpen Capital, told Fox News Digital about the documentary series “Bucks County, USA” being screened at Sundance, a Utah festival known for screening films promoting liberal causes and being a place for anti-Trump demonstrations.

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Martino, who is featured in the film, told Fox News Digital that the five-part docuseries is “all about the political divisions that happen in the United States focused on where I live, Bucks County, USA.”

“It is about all of the post-COVID policies and all of the things that happened at the school board level once a lot of the parents’ rights movement started, and the film dives into a lot of detail about the political division that happened, and it focuses, ironically, on the friendship of my daughter and her best friend, who is what I would describe as my political rival’s daughter,” Martino explained.

Paul Martino at the Sundance Film Festival (Paul Martino)

Martino, a conservative, told Fox News Digital walking around Sundance was a “fascinating” experience and that he encountered many people who seemed to be open to the movie’s message of listening to the other side.

“Obviously, it is a rather left-leaning crowd in general. But even the people behind Sundance, the people who pick the films this year, said that they felt this film, ‘Bucks County, USA,’ was very important because it was in a Trump re-elected era,” Martino said.

“Understanding and speaking to the other side and understanding who the other side is is important.

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Former President Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)

“One of the amazing stories told by one of the filmmakers at Sundance was there’s a guy sitting next to me in a MAGA hat who I would have never talked to on the plane had I not made this movie and realized he had a lot to say to me. And the fact that this film affected even the filmmakers, I think, is a really interesting and important lesson for the rest of the country.”

While many people at Sundance were receptive to the film, Martino told Fox News Digital he did encounter some opposition from people at a question-and-answer session after the screening.

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The marquee of the Egyptian Theatre during the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 28, 2020, in Park City, Utah. (AP/Arthur Mola/Invision)

“I would say one of the only disappointments of the experience was I felt that some people in the crowd, you know, it’s an honor to be in the Q&A at the end of the series and, look, we had everybody up there. We had people who really don’t like each other, who disagree vehemently, and I think it was lost on the audience that all of us were standing there,” Martino said.

“The fact that we all agreed to be part of this, the fact that we were all there and I got asked a question or two that were directed in my direction that I felt were a little bit inflammatory and I kind of chuckled to myself thinking, ‘Did you just watch the movie? And did you just see the fact that we’re all here? Maybe you missed a little something there.’”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

January 31, 2025
‘Red flag’: Education activist rails against ‘dangerous’ Trump nominee for key education post

President Trump is facing pushback from conservatives on social media, as well as an education activist who spoke to Fox News Digital, over his nomination of Dr. Penny Schwinn for deputy secretary at the Department of Education.

“Being from Tennessee and being under Schwinn and her Berkeley-educated, radical views, I was actually shocked when I heard that she was being nominated by President Trump because she is the most unlike President Trump, and her policies are not the same,” Laurie Cardoza Moore, member of the Tennessee Textbook and Instructional Materials Quality Commission and founder of Proclaiming Justice To the Nations, told Fox News Digital about Trump’s nomination of Schwinn.

Trump announced his nomination of Schwinn, the former commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Education, in a recent Truth Social post, saying that she is “committed to delivering the American Dream to the next Generation by returning Education BACK TO THE STATES.”

Moore told Fox News Digital that Schwinn’s record is not compatible with the agenda Trump is trying to implement and fears that someone recommended Schwinn to Trump without fully explaining her background.

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Education activist Laurie Cardoza Moore told Fox News Digital she has significant concerns about Trump’s Deputy Education Secretary pick.

“I decided to call on President Trump to rescind his nomination of Penny Schwinn for the deputy secretary of Education appointment because of the policies that she implemented here in the state of Tennessee. You know, I fought for a couple of years for Gov. Lee to call for her resignation because of her, her policies, her values,” Moore said.

“But under her leadership, and this is what’s important for the audience to understand, the children in Tennessee — and this is not just Tennessee because she’s been to Texas and Florida — but our kids were subjected to pornographic and anti-Semitic content in library books, for example, ‘Me and Earl and the Dying Girl’ was one of them. She exposed Tennessee children to dark content like the Wit and Wisdom curriculum, all of which violate child indecency laws and obscenity laws here in the state of Tennessee, which is really troubling to me. She developed a plan to conduct child welfare checks on Tennessee children from birth to 18 to make sure they had their vaccinations.”

Moore expressed concerns that the Berkeley-educated Schwinn hired a math expert in Tennessee, Rachael Maves, who promoted “math equity” in California, along with Schwinn’s support of the Wit and Wisdom program, which critics say is a mask for CRT.

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Republican presidential nominee former President Donald Trump arrives at an election night watch party at the Palm Beach Convention Center, Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Evan Vucci/AP)

Schwinn was grilled by Tennessee lawmakers in 2020 over her handling of textbooks and contracts but defended her actions taken as education commissioner.

Schwinn was hired by former University of Florida President Ben Sasse, a vocal Trump critic, in 2023 and was one of several employees to face criticism for racking up thousands in travel costs in order to work from home before she was fired in 2024, WUSF reported.

While Trump has garnered widespread praise from conservatives for the majority of his appointments, many conservatives on social media echoed Moore’s concerns about Schwinn.

“President Trump needs the full story on Penny Schwinn’s education history in TN,” conservative commentator Robby Starbuck posted on X. “I really hope he reconsiders her nomination.”

“Penny says her core value is ‘Equity for all… no matter what.’ On her watch TN’s Department of Education even embraced DEI for hiring teachers. She may be a very nice person but naming her Under Secretary of Education at this critical juncture isn’t a good idea when she’s been a believer in this toxic DEI ideology.”

Tennessee Commissioner of Education Dr Penny Schwinn testified at the House Education Committee on Capitol Hill on July 23, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images)

“Anytime someone claims their desired outcome is equity, understand they’re pushing a communist agenda,” former NCAA swimmer and conservative commentator Riley Gaines posted on X. “NO to Penny Schwinn.”

Country music star John Rich also criticized Schwinn in a post on X, saying that Trump’s decision needs to be “reversed.”

Other conservatives came to Schwinn’s defense, including journalist Chris Rufo, who is considered the most effective critic of Critical Race Theory in many conservative circles.

“President Trump and Secretary McMahon selected Penny for a reason, and we should all work together to make sure she is successful,” Rufo wrote on X.

Schwinn’s appointment also earned praise from GOP Sen. Tim Scott, who posted on X, “The closest thing to magic in America is a quality education. With @realDonaldTrump, @Linda_McMahon, and Penny Schwinn leading our education policy, we will empower parents and prioritize students.”

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“God does not give brains out based on zip code or income. Let’s unleash school choice so all students can thrive.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders posted on X that McMahon and Schwinn are “both champions on parental empowerment and education freedom through universal school choice we’re implementing in Arkansas.”

Many conservatives have made the case that Trump has a “mandate” from the voters to appoint whoever he sees fit to these high-profile positions, but Moore called Schwinn a “red flag” who will not adhere to Trump’s agenda in the department, specifically his plan to downsize or even eliminate the department.

“Somehow somebody has put the bug in Trump’s ear that he should nominate her,” Moore told Fox News Digital. “But President Trump, you know, I know that he’s very concerned about the future and the state of education, and Penny Schwinn is the last person. She would embarrass him ultimately down the road because she would implement her left policies, her Berkeley-educated policies, and introduce them to the whole country. Very dangerous.”

Andrew Mark Miller is a reporter at Fox News. Find him on Twitter @andymarkmiller and email tips to [email protected].

January 28, 2025
Why an activist investor says the battle against Costco DEI regime isn’t over

Storch Advisors CEO and former Toys”R”Us and Target executive Gerald Storch reacts to a strong November retail report and explains how industry winners are ‘value-based’ players.

Costco shareholders may have overwhelmingly rejected a challenge to the company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies on Friday, but the activist investors leading the charge against the wholesaler club’s “woke” business practices say the fight is far from over.

“A board opposing a shareholder proposal is a typical and expected part of the shareholder proposal process– nearly every shareholder proposal, regardless of topic, is opposed by every board,” Ethan Peck deputy director for the National Center for Public Policy Research’s Free Enterprise Project (NCPR), told Fox News Digital.

The NCPR had made a bid for Costco executives to investigate the risks the company’s business posed to the company’s bottom line, but the grocery club chain’s board of directors unanimously came out against their effort.

COSTCO BOARD MEMBER DEFENDS DEI PRACTICES, REBUKES COMPANIES SCRAPPING POLICIES

Costco roundly rejected a challenge to its DEI policies. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images / Getty Images)

“We owe our success to the more than 300,000 employees who serve our members every day. It is important that they all feel included and appreciated and that they transmit these values to our customers,” Costco Chairman Hamilton “Tony” James said at the shareholder meeting Friday. Ninety-eight percent of Costco’s shareholder voted against NCPR’s proposal.

However, Peck says that setbacks like this are normal, and predicts that Costco may go the way of Walmart, McDonald’s, Harley-Davidson and other companies that ditched DEI in the midst of President Donald Trump’s historic election win.

“Just months before Boeing dropped DEI, they opposed our shareholder proposal requesting an audit of their DEI efforts. So Costco doubling-down on DEI in the proxy statement is not as meaningful as has been made out to be,” Peck said.

COSTCO SHAREHOLDERS REJECT ANTI-DEI MEASURE

President Trump signed an executive order banning DEI from the federal government. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images / Getty Images)

“There’s still a decent chance that Costco drops DEI by the end of the year,” he added.

Costco is a high-profile holdout from the rising tide of companies rolling back or abandoning their DEI policies, which can include taking racial or gender considerations into hiring practice and workplace diversity trainings.

Costco board member Jeff Raikes, who formerly served as CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been a vocal supporter of DEI policies, and has written that businesses should “maximize” their DEI initiatives.

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The activists say that Costco may still ditch DEI by the end of the year. (Marlene Awaad/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Getty Images)

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“Attacks on DEI aren’t just bad for business—they hurt our economy. A diverse workforce drives innovation, expands markets, and fuels growth. Let’s focus on building a future where all talent thrives,” Raikes wrote in a Nov. 2024 post on X.

President Trump, who has issued executive orders banning DEI in the federal government, slammed DEI as “discriminatory” and “absolute nonsense” in his Davos speech Thursday.

Costco didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

January 27, 2025
Pro-life activist prosecuted by Biden DOJ reacts to Trump pardon: ‘I want to give him a hug’

FIRST ON FOX: When Joan Bell, 76, was given the news she was one of the pro-life activists pardoned by President Donald Trump Thursday afternoon, she was in disbelief.

“I didn’t know if that meant we would get out in a few weeks or a few months, or what. I didn’t really know, but I knew we got pardoned,” Bell, a grandmother of eight, told Fox News Digital Friday. “Well, then I ran upstairs because I had a rosary every evening.”

After finishing her prayers and Bible study with other inmates, Bell, a lifelong pro-life advocate, was told by several other inmates that her husband, Christopher Bell, was on Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show saying she was indeed one of the 23 others pardoned.

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President Donald Trump pardoned 23 pro-life activists Thursday. (Getty/Christopher Bell)

“That was overwhelmingly beautiful,” Bell recalled. “Everyone was clapping.” She was then told by a guard to pack up her things for her release later that evening.

“We are so grateful to Trump. And to just feel the fresh air, God’s beautiful air, just wonderful,” Bell said. “Just being out and being with my husband, my son, just glorious. There are no words to describe that kind of freedom.”

She added that she and her husband will take a “second honeymoon” soon.

Bell, who lives in New Jersey, was sentenced to more than two years in prison in November 2023 for participating in a “blockade,” conspiring with other activists at a Washington D.C. abortion clinic in October 2020, according to President Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ).

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Joan Bell, 76, (center), is pictured with her church community and husband Christopher Bell after President Donald Trump pardoned her and 22 others Thursday. (Christopher Bell)

Prosecutors from the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division and U.S. attorney’s office for the District of Columbia argued the pro-life activists violated the 1994 FACE Act, a federal law that prohibits physical force, threats of force or intentionally damaging property to prevent someone from obtaining or providing abortion services.

The activists were sentenced by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, a Clinton appointee, and immediately detained.

While signing the pardons Thursday, just a day before Friday’s annual March for Life rally, Trump said, “They should not have been prosecuted.”

PRO-LIFE PROTESTERS PARDONED BY TRUMP, FOX CONFIRMS

“Many, many of them are elderly people,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “They should not have been prosecuted. This is a great honor to sign this. They’ll be very happy.”

Bell, along with Paula Paulette Harlow, Jean Marshall and John Hinshaw, were all around 70 years old when they were imprisoned.

“That he personally knew our case is so touching,” Bell said of Trump. “I want to give him a hug.”

Attorneys from the Thomas More Society formally requested pardons from the Trump administration earlier this month for the 21 pro-life advocates the law firm was representing.

President Donald Trump signs documents as he issues executive orders and pardons for Jan. 6 defendants in the Oval Office at the White House on Inauguration Day in Washington Jan. 20, 2025. (Reuters/Carlos Barria)

“The heroic peaceful pro-lifers unjustly imprisoned by Biden’s Justice Department will now be freed and able to return home to their families, eat a family meal and enjoy the freedom that should have never been taken from them in the first place,” Steve Crampton, senior counsel of the Thomas More Society, said in a statement.

“These heroic peaceful pro-lifers were treated shamefully by Biden’s DOJ, with many of them branded felons and losing many rights that we take for granted as American citizens.”

In a previous interview with Fox News Digital, Crampton said it was hard to find a “fair jury” and that most of the jurors were either Planned Parenthood donors or pro-choice advocates in the cases. He called Washington, D.C., the “most pro-abortion city in America.”

“She can say her pro-death words, but we weren’t allowed to say pro-life words,” Bell said of the judge in the trial. Nonetheless, she said it was more “heartbreaking” to be prosecuted for her religious beliefs.

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This week, Trump also took action to pardon over 1,000 Jan. 6 rioters who were imprisoned, along with numerous other executive orders related to immigration and cryptocurrency and orders to declassify the MLK and JFK files.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division for comment.

Jamie Joseph is a writer who covers politics. She leads Fox News Digital coverage of the Senate.

January 24, 2025