Yes, Craftsman and DeWalt are owned by Stanley Black & Decker. However, the company owns many brands. Brands such as Ryobi, Dirt Devil, Oreck, Milwaukee Electric and Hoover, for example, are owned by Techtronic Industries, based in Hong Kong. Stanley Black & Decker, based in Connecticut, owns many brands besides his name, including Lenox, Craftsman, Irwin Tools, DeWalt and CribMaster.
Stanley Black & Decker is the owner of Dewalt and Techtronic Industries (TTI) is the owner of Milwaukee Tool. There is no notable cross-border, partnership or cooperation effort between these companies. Somewhere I saw an interesting article about MKE leadership that came from DeWalt and used the same marketing techniques that put DeWalt on the map in the mid-90s. When other companies were doing the same in the wireless tool market, DeWalt began creating new tools and listening to professionals.
I just wanted to add that I know it's not exactly a tool company for merchants, but I'm guessing it's someone's tool company: Oreck vacuums are also owned by TTI. The goal was to find the tool companies that manufacture and own most of the tool brands you know and love. Very interesting, a list of the companies that actually manufacture the tools for retailers would be useful to track the quality of the tools and then save money. Dewalt has one of the broadest lines that surpasses Milwaukee, but much of it is based on the improvement of Stanley Black and Decker or is manufactured on a contract basis once it moves away from major power tools.
Apex Tool Group is owned by Bain Capital and was formerly a joint venture between Danaher and Cooper Tools. As you said, Milwaukee has been beating Dewalt in terms of 12V tools, especially mechanical tools. I have quite a few Dewalt tools, and they're usually of fairly decent quality and are designed for hard work, but for the past 10 years or so, they've been followers when it comes to tool innovation rather than leaders. In 1994, DeWalt took over the German manufacturer of electrical woodworking tools ELU and used ELU technology to expand its line of tools.
Illinois Tool Works (ITW) has tool companies such as Miller Welders, Hobart Welders, Ramset, Paslode and a large number of consumables under its corporate umbrella. Therefore, Dewalt's tool developments could be based on both dedicated and group efforts, while Milwaukee tends to operate more autonomously.
