ILLINOIS TOOL WORKS INC (ITW)

ITEM 2. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

INTRODUCTION

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (the "Company" or "ITW") is a global manufacturer of a diversified range of industrial products and equipment. As of December 31, 2025, the Company had 88 divisions with approximately 43,000 people in 49 countries.

The Company's operations are organized and managed based on similar product offerings and end markets, and are reported to senior management as the following seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products.

Due to the large number of diverse businesses and the Company's decentralized operating structure, the Company does not require its businesses to provide detailed information on operating results. Instead, the Company's corporate management collects data on several key measurements: operating revenue, operating income, operating margin, variable cost of revenue, overhead expenses, number of months on hand in inventory, days sales outstanding in accounts receivable, past due receivables and return on invested capital. These key measures are monitored by management and significant changes in operating results versus current trends in end markets and variances from forecasts are discussed with operating unit management.

THE ITW BUSINESS MODEL

The powerful and highly differentiated ITW Business Model is the Company's core source of value creation. It serves as the Company's primary competitive advantage and defines the framework through which ITW generates sustainable value for its shareholders. The ITW Business Model is comprised of three unique elements:

•80/20 Front-to-Back defines how the Company operates. It is a unique set of proprietary tools and methodologies that ITW divisions utilize to structure and operate their businesses to (a) maximize the performance, execution, and value-add provided to their largest and most profitable customers (the "80"), and (b) minimize the costs, complexity, and distractions associated with serving less profitable accounts (the "20"). Through the application of the 80/20 Front-to-Back process, ITW divisions deliver best-in-class customer-facing execution, high-quality organic growth, and superior profitability and return on capital performance.

•Customer-Back Innovation ("CBI") drives the Company's approach to innovation and development. ITW innovates from the customer back, rather than from a centralized research and development center out. ITW divisions partner with their key customers to create unique solutions that solve difficult technical challenges and improve business performance. This disciplined, repeatable process directs innovation efforts toward high-growth markets with solid long-term fundamentals.

•ITW's Decentralized, Entrepreneurial Culture is the key to the Company's execution. Divisions are clear on the expectations of the ITW Business Model, strategy, and values. Within this framework, business teams are empowered to make decisions and customize their approach to maximize the relevance and impact of the ITW Business Model for their specific customers and end markets. This "flexibility within the framework" culture encourages an ownership mindset and accountability, enabling the Company to consistently deliver differentiated results.

ENTERPRISE STRATEGY: LEVERAGING THE ITW BUSINESS MODEL TO ITS FULL POTENTIAL

Since the initiation of the Enterprise Strategy in 2012, the entire organization has focused on utilizing the ITW Business Model to its full potential to deliver solid growth with best-in-class margins and returns. To execute the strategy, the Company undertook a complete review of its performance, focusing on its businesses that delivered consistent above-market growth with best-in-class margins and returns, and developed a framework to replicate that performance across its operations. ITW determined that high-quality above-market organic growth is the core growth engine to deliver world-class financial performance and compelling long-term returns for its shareholders.

Key initiatives in the Company's Enterprise Strategy included portfolio management, business structure simplification, strategic sourcing and the diligent re-application of ITW's proprietary 80/20 Front-to-Back process.

•As part of the Portfolio Management initiative, ITW exited businesses that were operating in commoditized market spaces and prioritized sustainable differentiation as a must-have requirement for all ITW businesses. This process included both divesting entire businesses and exiting commoditized product lines and customers inside otherwise highly differentiated ITW divisions.

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•Business Structure Simplification was implemented to simplify and scale up ITW's operating structure to support increased engineering, marketing, and sales resources, and improve global reach and competitiveness, all of which were critical to driving accelerated organic growth. ITW now has 88 scaled-up divisions with significantly enhanced focus on growth investments, core customers and products, and Customer-Back Innovation.

•The Strategic Sourcing initiative established sourcing as a core strategic and operational capability at ITW, delivering an average of one percent reduction in spend each year since 2013 and continues to be a key contributor to the Company's ongoing Enterprise Strategy.

•With the initial portfolio realignment and scale-up work largely completed, the Company shifted its focus to preparing for and accelerating organic growth, reapplying the 80/20 Front-to-Back process to optimize its scaled-up divisions for growth, first, to build a foundation of operational excellence, and second, to identify the best opportunities to drive organic growth.

Since implementing the Company's Enterprise Strategy in 2012, the Company has demonstrated the compelling performance potential of the ITW Business Model and superior 80/20 management, resulting in meaningful incremental improvement in margins and returns as evidenced by the Company's operating margin and after-tax return on invested capital.

NEXT PHASE: 2024 - 2030

In the Next Phase of the Company's Enterprise Strategy, the ITW Business Model remains the Company's core competitive advantage and a powerful performance differentiator, uniquely positioning the Company to navigate a global operating environment characterized by increasing volatility and a rapid pace of change. The 80/20 Front-to-Back process provides the strategic clarity to deliver high-quality organic growth and superior customer service, profitability and returns on capital. Through Customer-Back Innovation, the Company innovates technical solutions to solve critical customer challenges with higher effectiveness and lower risk. The Company's decentralized entrepreneurial culture allows it to be a "fast adaptor," capable of reading and reacting to market shifts with agility. Furthermore, the Company's ability to execute and invest consistently through all phases of the business cycle has become a defining strength.

As the Company advances through this Next Phase, it is continuing to improve the quality of practice in its proprietary business model while pivoting decisively to build above-market organic growth, fueled by Customer-Back Innovation execution, into a core ITW strength. Achieving high-quality organic growth of four percent or more through the cycle is the Company's highest priority in the Next Phase. CBI successes, coupled with underlying market growth and share gains, are how the Company intends to achieve its high-quality organic growth.

Portfolio Discipline

The Company only operates in industries where it can generate significant, long-term competitive advantage from the ITW Business Model. ITW businesses have the right "raw material" in terms of market and business attributes that best fit the ITW Business Model and have significant potential to drive above-market organic growth over the long-term.

The Company focuses on high-quality businesses, ensuring it operates in markets with positive long-term macro fundamentals and with customers that have critical needs and value ITW's differentiated products, services and solutions. ITW's portfolio operates in highly diverse end markets and geographies which makes the Company more resilient in the face of uncertain or volatile market environments.

The Company routinely evaluates its portfolio to ensure it delivers sustainable differentiation and drives consistent long-term performance. This includes both implementing portfolio refinements and assessing selective high-quality acquisitions to supplement ITW's long-term growth potential.

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TERMS USED BY ITW

Management uses the following terms to describe the financial results of operations of the Company:

•Organic business - acquired businesses that have been included in the Company's results of operations for more than 12 months on a constant currency basis.

•Operating leverage - the estimated effect of the organic revenue volume changes on organic operating income, assuming variable margins remain the same as the prior period.

•Price/cost - represents the estimated net impact of increases or decreases in the cost of materials used in the Company's products versus changes in the selling price to the Company's customers.

•Product line simplification ("PLS") - focuses businesses on eliminating the complexity and overhead costs associated with smaller product lines and customers, and focuses businesses on supporting and growing their largest customers and product lines. In the short-term, PLS may result in a decrease in revenue and overhead costs while improving operating margin. In the long-term, PLS is expected to result in growth in revenue, profitability and returns.

Unless otherwise stated, the changes in financial results in the consolidated results of operations and the results of operations by segment represent the current year period versus the comparable period in the prior year. The following discussion of operating results should be read in conjunction with Item 7 - Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations in the Company's 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K.

CONSOLIDATED RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

During the first quarter of 2022, Russian military forces invaded Ukraine. In response, the United States and several other countries imposed economic and other sanctions on Russia. The Company has four immaterial Russian subsidiaries with net assets of approximately $42 million as of June 30, 2026. The revenue for these four subsidiaries for the three and six months ended June 30, 2026 was approximately $8 million and $14 million, respectively. These subsidiaries are not material to the Company's results of operations or financial position.

On April 2, 2025, the United States government announced additional tariffs on goods imported to the U.S. from numerous countries. In response, certain countries retaliated with additional counter-tariffs or negotiated with the U.S. government regarding tariffs. Tariffs on goods from many countries became effective on August 1, 2025. On February 20, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court invalidated many of the tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (the "IEEPA"), resulting in the termination of many tariffs imposed in 2025. Following this decision, a new temporary 10 percent global tariff was imposed under the Trade Act, which expired in July 2026, and was effectively replaced by similar tariffs imposed on numerous countries under different provisions of the Trade Act. The Company believes that it continues to be well positioned to minimize the impact of these tariffs because its businesses generally manufacture products in the markets where they are sold and the Company expects to recover any increased cost due to tariffs through price incre

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ITEM 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations

INTRODUCTION

Illinois Tool Works Inc. (the "Company" or "ITW") is a global manufacturer of a diversified range of industrial products and equipment with 88 divisions in 49 countries. As of December 31, 2025, the Company employed approximately 43,000 people.

The Company's operations are organized and managed based on similar product offerings and end markets, and are reported to senior management as the following seven segments: Automotive OEM; Food Equipment; Test & Measurement and Electronics; Welding; Polymers & Fluids; Construction Products; and Specialty Products.

Due to the large number of diverse businesses and the Company's decentralized operating structure, the Company does not require its businesses to provide detailed information on operating results. Instead, the Company's corporate management collects data on several key measurements: operating revenue, operating income, operating margin, variable cost of revenue, overhead expenses, number of months on hand in inventory, days sales outstanding in accounts receivable, past due receivables and return on invested capital. These key measures are monitored by management and significant changes in operating results versus current trends in end markets and variances from forecasts are discussed with operating unit management.

THE ITW BUSINESS MODEL

The powerful and highly differentiated ITW Business Model is the Company's core source of value creation. It is the Company's competitive advantage and defines how ITW creates value for its shareholders. The ITW Business Model is comprised of three unique elements:

•ITW's 80/20 Front-to-Back process is the operating system that is applied in every ITW business. Initially introduced as a manufacturing efficiency tool in the 1980s, ITW has continually refined, improved and expanded 80/20 into a proprietary, holistic business management process that generates significant value for the Company and its customers. Through the application of data driven insights generated by 80/20 practice, ITW focuses on its largest and best opportunities (the "80") and eliminates cost, complexity and distractions associated with the less profitable opportunities (the "20"). 80/20 enables ITW businesses to consistently achieve world-class operational excellence in product availability, quality, and innovation, while generating superior financial performance;

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•Customer-back Innovation has fueled decades of profitable growth at ITW. The Company's unique innovation approach is built on insight gathered from the 80/20 Front-to-Back process. Working from the customer back, ITW businesses position themselves as the go-to problem solver for their "80" customers. ITW's innovation efforts are focused on understanding customer needs, particularly those in "80" markets with solid long-term growth fundamentals, and creating unique solutions to address those needs. These customer insights and learnings drive innovation at ITW and have contributed to a portfolio of approximately 21,800 granted and pending patents; and

•ITW's Decentralized, Entrepreneurial Culture enables ITW businesses to be fast, focused, and responsive. ITW businesses have significant flexibility within the framework of the ITW Business Model to customize their approach in order to best serve their specific customers' needs. ITW colleagues recognize their unique responsibilities to execute the Company's strategy and values. As a result, the Company maintains a focused and simple organizational structure that, combined with outstanding execution, delivers best-in-class services and solutions adapted to each business' customers and end markets.

ENTERPRISE STRATEGY: 2012 - 2023

In late 2012, ITW began its strategic framework transitioning the Company to fully leverage the unique and powerful set of capabilities and operating practices of the ITW Business Model. The Company undertook a complete review of its performance, focusing on its businesses delivering consistent above-market growth with best-in-class margins and returns, and developing a strategy to replicate that performance across its operations. ITW determined that solid and consistent above-market organic growth is the core growth engine to deliver world-class financial performance and compelling long-term returns for its shareholders.

Key initiatives in the Company's enterprise strategy included portfolio management, business structure simplification, strategic sourcing and the diligent re-application of ITW's proprietary 80/20 Front-to-Back process.

•As part of the Portfolio Management initiative, ITW exited businesses that were operating in commoditized market spaces and prioritized sustainable differentiation as a must-have requirement for all ITW businesses. This process included both divesting entire businesses and exiting commoditized product lines and customers inside otherwise highly differentiated ITW divisions.

•Business Structure Simplification was implemented to simplify and scale up ITW's operating structure to support increased engineering, marketing, and sales resources, and improve global reach and competitiveness, all of which were critical to driving accelerated organic growth. ITW now has 88 scaled-up divisions with significantly enhanced focus on growth investments, core customers and products, and customer-back innovation.

•The Strategic Sourcing initiative established sourcing as a core strategic and operational capability at ITW, delivering an average of one percent reduction in spend each year since 2013 and continues to be a key contributor to the Company's ongoing enterprise strategy.

•With the initial portfolio realignment and scale-up work largely completed, the Company shifted its focus to preparing for and accelerating organic growth, reapplying the 80/20 Front-to-Back process to optimize its scaled-up divisions for growth, first, to build a foundation of operational excellence, and second, to identify the best opportunities to drive organic growth.

Since implementing the Company's enterprise strategy in 2012, the Company has demonstrated the compelling performance potential of the ITW Business Model and superior 80/20 management, resulting in meaningful incremental improvement in margins and returns as evidenced by the Company's operating margin and after-tax return on invested capital. At the same time, these 80/20 initiatives may also result in restructuring initiatives that reduce costs and improve profitability and returns.

OUR NEXT PHASE: 2024 - 2030

In the Next Phase of the Company's evolution, the ITW Business Model and the Enterprise Strategy framework will be as formidable of a competitive advantage and performance differentiator as it has been over the last decade, if not more so. Volatility, risk and the pace of change in the global operating environment will continue to increase, and a decentralized entrepreneurial culture allows the Company to be a fast adaptor – to read, react, respond and evolve. The Company's ability to consistently execute and invest through the ups and downs of the business cycle is now a defining competitive advantage.

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Throughout the Next Phase, the Company's focus is to build organic growth into a core ITW strength on par with the Company's world-class financial performance and operational capabilities. Throughout this phase, the Company will sustain its foundational strengths built over the past decade, including the high-quality ITW Business Model practice. Customer-back Innovation ("CBI") is the most impactful driver to achieve high-quality organic growth through the cycle by establishing trusted problem solver relationships with key customers to effectively invent solutions that address customers' most critical pain points or tackle the biggest growth opportunities. CBI successes, coupled with underlying market growth and share gains, are how the Company intends to achieve its high-quality organic growth.

During the Next Phase, ITW will continue to drive 80/20 Front-to-Back practice excellence in every division in the Company, every day, further improving customer-facing performance and supporting additional structural margin expansion at the enterprise level.

Portfolio Discipline

The Company only operates in industries where it can generate significant, long-term competitive advantage from the ITW Business Model. ITW businesses have the right "raw material" in terms of market and business attributes that best fit the ITW Business Model and have significant potential to drive above-market organic growth over the long-term.

The Company focuses on high-quality businesses, ensuring it operates in markets with positive long-term macro fundamentals and with customers that have critical needs and value ITW's differentiated products, services and solutions. ITW's portfolio operates in highly diverse end markets and geographies which makes the Company more resilient in the face of uncertain or volatile market environments.

The Company routinely evaluates its portfolio to ensure it delivers sustainable differentiation and drives consistent long-term performance. This includes both implementing portfolio refinements and assessing selective high-quality acquisitions to supplement ITW's long-term growth potential.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, plans were approved to divest one business in the Specialty Products segment. This business was presented as held for sale beginning in the fourth quarter of 2022. This business was sold on April 3, 2023, with no significant gain or loss upon sale. Operating revenue related to this business that was included in the Company's results of operations was $9 million for the twelve months ended December 31, 2023. Refer to Note 3. Divestitures in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for further information regarding the Company's divestitures.

On January 2, 2024, the Company completed the acquisition of one business in the Test & Measurement and Electronics segment for $57 million, net of cash acquired. On April 1, 2024, the Company completed the acquisition of one business in the Test & Measurement and Electronics segment for $59 million, net of cash acquired. The Company has completed the allocation of purchase price for both of these acquisitions. On October 1, 2025, the Company completed the acquisition of one business in the Test & Measurement and Electronics segment for $120 million, net of cash acquired, and subject to certain closing adjustments. The allocation of purchase price for this acquisition will be completed as soon as practicable, but no later than one year from the acquisition date. These acquisitions were not material, individually or in the aggregate, to the Company's results of operations, financial position or cash flows. Refer to Note 2. Acquisitions in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for further information regarding the Company's acquisitions.

On August 5, 2024, the Company entered into a purchase agreement with affiliates of Clayton, Dubilier & Rice, LLC ("CD&R") for the sale of the Company's noncontrolling equity interest in Wilsonart International Holdings LLC ("Wilsonart") for $398 million. The transaction closed immediately after the execution of the purchase agreement. Proceeds from the transaction, net of transaction costs, were $395 million, resulting in a pre-tax gain of $363 million which was included in Other income (expense) in the Statement of Income. Income taxes on the gain were more than offset by a discrete tax benefit of $107 million in the third quarter of 2024 related to the utilization of capital loss carryforwards upon the sale of Wilsonart. Refer to Note 5. Other Income (Expense) and Note 6. Income Taxes in Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data for additional information regarding this transaction.

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TERMS USED BY ITW

Management uses the following terms to desc

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