ROK vs DEO Comparison

With roots tracing back to the early 1900s, Rockwell Automation is the successor to Rockwell International, which spun off its avionics segment in 2001. It is a pure-play industrial automation company that operates through three segments. Its largest segment by revenue, intelligent devices, sells factory floor-level devices such as motors, drives, sensors, relays, and actuators. Its software and control segment sells visualization, simulation, and human-machine interface software and control products such as programmable controllers, computers, and operator terminals. Its smallest segment, lifecycle services, offers digital consulting, engineered-to-order services, and other outsourced services such as remote monitoring, cybersecurity, and asset and plant maintenance and optimization.

Formed in 1997 through the merger of Grand Metropolitan and Guinness, Diageo is the largest distiller globally by sales. Diageo acquired some of the Seagram assets in 2001, which gave it brands such as Captain Morgan rum and Crown Royal Canadian whisky. Since then, mergers and acquisitions have mostly been bolt-on in nature, plugging gaps in the company's product and geographic portfolio. The firm has also shed noncore brands over the years, including the majority of its wine assets in 2015.