Stanley is like the Freedom Group of tools
- 1937: Stanley Works entered the UK market with the acquisition of J.A Chapman of Sheffield, England.[8]
- 1946: Stanley Works acquired North Brothers Manufacturing Company.[9]
- 1963: Stanley started operations in Australia as Stanley-Titan when it bought a 50% share of Titan, a subsidiary of BHP.[10]
- 1966: Stanley Works acquired Vidmar Cabinets.[11]
- 1970: Stanley-Titan acquired Turner Tools based in Melbourne, Australia.[12]
- 1980: Stanley Works acquired Mac Tools.[8][13]
- 1984: Stanley Works purchased Proto from Ingersoll Rand and it becomes Stanley Proto.[14]
- 1986: Stanley Works acquired Bostitch from Textron.[15]
- 1990: Stanley Works acquired Goldblatt[8][13] and ZAG Industries.[13]
- 1990: Acquired Sidchrome Tool Co., headquartered in Melbourne, Australia; closed plant in 1996 and started to move all tool manufacturing to Taiwan, whilist sourcing various items from Proto in the USA (marked as Proto on items) due to short supply of left over Australian made tools being sold out until all manufacturing was up to speed in Taiwan.
- 1992: Stanley Works purchased the Chatsworth, California-based Monarch Mirror Door Co. Inc., an American manufacturer of sliding and folding mirror-doors.
- 2000: Stanley Works acquired Blick of Swindon, England,[8][13] a UK integrator of security solutions, communication, and time-management solutions, and CST Berger.[8][13]
- 2002: In October, Stanley Works acquired Best Access Systems of Indianapolis, Indiana, for $310 million. The acquisition also prompted the creation of a new Access Controls Group for Stanley. Further additions to this new working group included Blick.
- 2004: In January, Stanley announced plans to acquire Frisco Bay Industries Ltd., a Canadian provider of security integration services, for $45.3 million. In December, the acquisition of ISR Solutions, Inc., headquartered in Washington, D.C., was announced. ISR Solutions provides the U.S. federal government and commercial customers with access security system services.
- 2005: In January, the acquisition of Security Group, Inc. was announced. Security Group was composed of two primary operating companies: Sargent & Greenleaf, Inc., a manufacturer of locks; and Safemasters, a North American provider of security installation, maintenance and repair services. An additional acquisition of Precision Hardware was made in 2005.
- 2006: Stanley furthered its corporate assets in the security market by acquiring HSM Electronic Protection Systems after it had been spun off from Honeywell in compliance with pre-emptive Securities and Exchange Commission antitrust rulings. In the meantime, the company obtained security contracts as the primary contractor to secure three NASA spaceflight centers.[16] Stanley Works also acquired Facom'.[8][13]
- 2007: Late in the year, Stanley acquired OSI Security of Chula Vista, California, a provider of battery-operated wireless lock technology and supplies to government, education, and healthcare industries.
- 2008: Stanley acquired Beach Toolbox Industries, headquartered in Smith Falls, Ontario, Canada, then closed the plant.
- 2008: In June, Stanley announced the acquisition of Sonitrol, which provides security systems that use audio listening devices as the primary means of intrusion detection. Stanley also acquired Xmark Corporation, which provides radio frequency identification (RFID) solutions in healthcare environments. As of 2008, many of the Stanley Security Services divisions were being integrated under the HSM brand.
- 2009: On November 2, Stanley announced a merger with Black & Decker.[17] The merger was completed on March 12, 2010.[18]
- 2010: In July, the company announced the acquisition of CRC-Evans Pipeline International.[19] CRC-Evans provides total project support for pipeline construction contractors with automatic welding and other pipeline construction specific equipment and personnel.
- 2011: On September 9, the acquisition of Niscayah was complete.
- 2012: On January 1, the acquisition of Lista North America, headquartered in Holliston, Massachusetts, was completed.[20]
- 2012: On June 1, the acquisition of Powers Fasterners, headquartered in Brewster, New York, was completed.[21]
- 2012: On June 5, the acquisition of AeroScout, Inc., headquartered in Redwood City, California, was completed.[22]
- 2016: Stanley Black & Decker announced in October that it acquired the Irwin, Lenox, Hilmor, and Dymo tool brands for $1.95 billion from Newell Brands.[23]
- 2017: On January 5, news reports indicated that it would acquire the Craftsman brand from KCD, LLC (A Sears Holdings subsidiary).[24] Subsequent reports by Bloomberg indicated that the company would pay $525 million initially, an additional $250 million after three years, as well as annual payments on new Craftsman sales for 15 years.[25]