Item 1. BUSINESS

Overview

Dover is a diversified global manufacturer delivering innovative equipment and components, specialty systems and support services through four major operating segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. The Company's entrepreneurial business model encourages, promotes, and fosters deep customer engagement and collaboration, which has led to Dover's well-established and valued reputation for providing superior customer service and industry-leading product innovation. Unless the context indicates otherwise, references herein to "Dover," "the Company," and words such as "we," "us," and "our" include Dover Corporation and its subsidiaries. Dover was incorporated in 1947 in the State of Delaware and became a publicly traded company in 1955. Dover is headquartered in Downers Grove, Illinois and currently employs approximately 26,000 people worldwide.

Dover's businesses are aligned in four segments and organized around our key end markets focused on growth strategies. The segment structure is also designed to provide increased opportunities to leverage Dover's scale and capitalize on productivity initiatives. Dover's four segments are as follows:

•	Our Energy segment, serving the Drilling & Production, Bearings & Compression, and Automation end markets, is a provider of customer-driven solutions and services for safe and efficient production and processing of fuels worldwide and has a strong presence in the bearings and compression components and automation markets.

•	Our Engineered Systems segment is comprised of two platforms, Printing & Identification and Industrials, and is focused on the design, manufacture and service of critical equipment and components serving the fast-moving consumer goods, digital textile printing, vehicle service, environmental solutions and industrial end markets.

•	Our Fluids segment, serving the Fluid Transfer and Pumps end markets, is focused on the safe handling of critical fluids across the retail fueling, chemical, hygienic, oil and gas and industrial end markets.

•	Our Refrigeration & Food Equipment segment is a provider of innovative and energy efficient equipment and systems serving the commercial refrigeration and food service end markets.

The following table shows the percentage of total revenue and segment earnings generated by each of our four segments for the years ended December 31, 2015, 2014 and 2013:

	Revenue									Segment Earnings
	2015			2014			2013			2015			2014			2013
Energy	21	%		26	%		26	%		17	%		34	%		35	%
Engineered Systems	34	%		31	%		30	%		36	%		29	%		27	%
Fluids	20	%		18	%		18	%		26	%		19	%		17	%
Refrigeration & Food Equipment	25	%		25	%		26	%		21	%		18	%		21	%

Management Philosophy

Our businesses are committed to operational excellence and to being market leaders as measured by market share, customer service, growth, profitability, and return on invested capital. Our operating structure of four business segments allows for focused acquisition activity, accelerates opportunities to identify and capture operating synergies, including global sourcing and supply chain integration, and advances the development of our executive talent. Our segment and executive management set strategic direction, initiatives and goals for our operating companies, and also provide oversight, allocate and manage capital, are responsible for major acquisitions, and provide other services. We foster an operating culture with high ethical standards, trust, respect, and open communication, designed to allow individual growth and operational effectiveness.

In addition, we are committed to creating value for our customers, employees, and shareholders through sustainable business practices that protect the environment and the development of products that help our customers meet their sustainability goals.

We have accelerated our efforts and processes around innovation, focusing on technologies which create tangible value for our customers.

Our companies are increasing their focus on efficient energy usage, greenhouse gas reduction, and waste management as they strive to meet the global environmental needs of today and tomorrow.

Company Goals

We are committed to driving shareholder return through three key objectives. First, we are committed to achieving annual organic sales growth of 3% to 5% over a long-term business cycle, absent extraordinary economic conditions, complemented by acquisition growth. Second, we continue to focus on segment margin expansion through productivity initiatives, including supply chain activities, targeted, thoughtful restructuring activities, strategic pricing, and portfolio shaping. Third, we are committed to generating free cash flow as a percentage of sales greater than 11% through strong performance, productivity improvements, and active working capital management. We support these goals through (1) alignment of management compensation with financial objectives, (2) well-defined and actively managed merger and acquisition processes, and (3) talent development programs.

Business Strategy

To achieve our goals, we are focused on execution of the following three key business strategies:

Positioning ourselves for growth

We have aligned our business segments to focus on the needs of customers in key end markets that are well-positioned for future growth. We capitalize on our expertise while maintaining an intense focus on our customers and their needs. We maintain and emphasize our entrepreneurial culture and continuously innovate to address our customers’ needs to help them win in the markets they serve.

In particular, our businesses are well-positioned to capitalize on trends in the areas of global energy demand, continuous productivity improvement, sustainability, energy efficiency, consumer product safety, and growth of consumerism in emerging economies. For instance, our Energy segment, despite recent market trends, is focusing on expansion in high growth regions and technologies, accelerating capabilities to drive international growth, and increasing investment in innovation to drive customer productivity and cash flow. Our Engineered Systems segment combines its engineering technology, unique product advantages, and applications expertise to address market needs and requirements including digital conversion, productivity solutions, sustainability, consumer product safety, and growth in emerging economies. The Fluids segment is focused on accelerated growth within the chemical/plastics, retail fueling, fluid transfer, industrial, and hygienic markets as well as globalizing brands across geographies while expanding sales channels and engineering support. In particular, we are pursuing further growth in the hygienic and polymers/plastics markets. Our Refrigeration & Food Equipment segment is responding to our customers’ energy efficiency, sustainability and food safety concerns as a result of government regulations, with innovative new products. In addition, we are broadening our product offerings targeted toward retail refrigeration and food service customers with enhanced productivity and merchandising products.

Capturing the benefits of common ownership

We are committed to operational excellence through our Dover Excellence program. This program focuses on free cash flow generation, productivity to support the ongoing investment in product innovation and customer expansion activities, the continuous evaluation of operating efficiencies, and the continued consolidation of back office support. Through this program we have implemented various productivity initiatives, such as supply chain management and lean manufacturing to maximize our efficiency as well as workplace safety initiatives to help ensure the health and welfare of our employees. We foster the sharing of best practices throughout the organization. To ensure success, our businesses place strong emphasis on continual quality improvement and new product development to better serve customers and expand into new product and geographic markets. We have also developed regional support centers and shared manufacturing centers in the U.S., China, Brazil, and India. Further, we continue to make significant investments in talent development, recognizing that the growth and development of our employees are essential for our continued success.

Disciplined capital allocation

Our businesses generate annual free cash flow of approximately 11% of revenue. We are focused on the most efficient allocation of our capital to maximize investment returns. To do this, we grow and support our existing businesses, with average annual investment in capital spending approximating 2 - 2.5% of revenue with a focus on internal projects to expand markets, develop products, and boost productivity. We continue to evaluate our portfolio for strategic fit and intend to make additional acquisitions focused on our key growth markets which include printing and identification, refrigeration and food equipment, pumps and fluid transfers and select energy markets. We consistently provide shareholder returns by paying dividends, which have increased annually over each of the last 60 years. We will also continue to repurchase our shares to offset the impact of dilution, as a minimum.

Portfolio Development

Acquisitions

Our acquisition program has two key elements. First, we seek to acquire value creating add-on businesses that enhance our existing businesses either through their global reach and customers, or by broadening their product mix. Second, in the right circumstances, we will strategically pursue larger, stand-alone businesses that have the potential to either complement our existing businesses or allow us to pursue innovative technologies within our key growth spaces. Over the past three years (2013 – 2015), we have spent over $1.7 billion to purchase 21 businesses that strategically fit within our business model. In the fourth quarter of 2015, we acquired three businesses for an aggregate purchase price of $561.3 million. These businesses include Gala Industries and Reduction Engineering Scheer, expanding our Fluids segment's plastics and polymers product and integrated systems portfolio. In addition, we acquired JK Group, a global manufacturer and provider of innovative digital inks for the textile printing market, that compliments the Printing & Identification platform within our Engineered Systems segment. In 2014, we acquired Accelerated for approximately $435.7 million, expanding our artificial lift footprint within our Energy segment. Accelerated, now part of our Drilling and Production businesses, is an integrated provider of equipment, parts, and services for handling fluids in oil and gas production. In 2013, we acquired 10 businesses for aggregate consideration of $322.8 million, including Finder Pompe, which we acquired in the fourth quarter of 2013 for approximately $142.2 million to expand our Fluids portfolio.

Subsequent to year end, we acquired the dispenser and system businesses of Tokheim Group S.A.S. ("Tokheim") for a purchase price of approximately €411.3 million, or $448.7 million. Tokheim will be integrated with our Fluid Transfer end market within our Fluids segment and will enable us to provide the most complete solutions available for our retail fueling customers.

For more details regarding acquisitions completed over the past two years, see Note 2 Acquisitions in the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Form 10-K. Our future growth depends in large part on finding and acquiring successful businesses, as a substantial number of our current businesses operate in relatively mature markets. While we expect to generate annual organic growth of 3% - 5% over a long-term business cycle absent extraordinary economic conditions, sustained organic growth at these levels for individual businesses is difficult to achieve consistently each year. Our success is also dependent on the ability to successfully integrate our acquired businesses within our existing structure. To track post-merger integration and accountability, we utilize an internal scorecard and defined processes to help ensure expected synergies are realized and value is created.

Dispositions

We routinely review our portfolio to evaluate whether our businesses continue to be essential contributors to our long-term strategy. Occasionally, we may also make an opportunistic sale of one of our businesses based on specific market conditions and strategic considerations. Accordingly, in an effort to reduce our exposure to cyclical markets and focus on our higher margin growth spaces, during the past three years (2013 – 2015) we have sold five businesses for aggregate consideration of $957.1 million.

During 2015, we completed the sale of Datamax O'Neil and Sargent Aerospace. In addition, during the fourth quarter of 2015 we completed the divestiture of a product line within the Refrigeration and Food Equipment segment. We expect to make further dispositions in the future, none of which, individually, are expected to be significant.

The financial position and results of operations for Datamax O'Neil and Sargent Aerospace have been presented as discontinued operations for all periods presented. For more details, see Note 3 Disposed and Discontinued Operations in the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

In addition, in February 2014, we divested of a significant portion of our technology business with the spin-off of Knowles as discussed below.

Spin-Off of Knowles

On February 28, 2014, we completed the separation of Knowles Corporation ("Knowles") from Dover through the pro rata distribution of 100% of the common stock of Knowles to Dover's stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 19, 2014. Each Dover shareholder received one share of Knowles common stock for every two shares of Dover common stock held as of the record date. As a result, Knowles became an independent, publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and Dover retains no ownership interest in Knowles. The distribution was structured to be tax-free to Dover and its shareholders for U.S. federal income tax purposes.

Business Segments

As noted previously, we currently operate through four business segments that are aligned with the key end markets they serve and comprise our operating and reportable segments: Energy, Engineered Systems, Fluids, and Refrigeration & Food Equipment. For financial information about our segments and geographic areas, see Note 16 Segment Information in the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Energy

Our Energy segment serves the Drilling & Production, Bearings & Compression, and Automation end markets. This segment is a provider of customer driven solutions and services for safe and efficient production and processing of fuels worldwide. This segment consists of the following end markets:

•

Drilling & Production – Our businesses serving the drilling and production end markets design and manufacture products that promote efficient and cost-effective drilling, including long-lasting polycrystalline diamond cutters ("PDCs") for applications in down-hole drilling tools and facilitate the extraction and movement of fuel from the ground, including steel sucker rods, down-hole rod pumps, electric submersible pumps, progressive cavity pumps and drive systems, and plunger lifts. In addition, these businesses manufacture winches, hoists, gear drives, and electronic monitoring solutions for energy, infrastructure, and recovery markets worldwide.

•

Bearings & Compression – These businesses manufacture various compressor parts that are used in natural gas production, distribution, and oil refining markets. Product offerings include bearings, bearing isolators, seals and remote condition monitoring systems that are used for rotating machinery applications such as turbo machinery, motors, generators and compressors used in energy, utility, marine and other industries.

•	Automation – These businesses design and manufacture products that promote efficient drilling and production of oil and gas including quartz pressure transducers and hybrid electronics used in down-hole monitoring devices, chemical injection pumps, automated pump controllers, artificial lift optimization software, diagnostic instruments for reciprocating machinery, and control valves.

Our Energy segment’s sales are made directly to customers and through various distribution channels. We manufacture our products primarily in North America, and our sales are concentrated in North America with an increasing level of international sales directed primarily to Europe, Australia, and Asia.

Engineered Systems

Our Engineered Systems segment is focused on the design, manufacture and service of critical equipment and components within the Printing & Identification and Industrials platforms, as described below.

•

Printing & Identification – Printing & Identification is a worldwide supplier of precision marking and coding, digital textile printing, soldering and dispensing equipment, and related consumables and services. Our Printing & Identification platform primarily designs and manufactures equipment and consumables used for printing variable information (such as bar coding of dates and serial numbers) on fast moving consumer goods, capitalizing on expanding food and product

safety requirements and growth in emerging markets. In addition, our businesses serving the textile market are benefiting from a significant shift from analog to digital printing, resulting from shorter runs and more complex fashion designs, as well as increasing regulatory and environmental standards.

•	Industrials – These businesses serve the vehicle service, industrial automation, and waste and recycling markets, providing a wide range of products and services which have broad customer applications.

The businesses in the industrial automation market provide a wide range of modular automation components including manual clamps, power clamps, rotary and linear mechanical indexers, conveyors, pick and place units, glove ports and manipulators, as well as end-of-arm robotic grippers, slides, and end effectors. These products serve a very broad market including food processing, packaging, paper processing, medical, electronic, automotive, nuclear, and general industrial products.

Our businesses serving waste and recycling markets provide products and services for the refuse collection industry and for on-site processing and compaction of trash and recyclable materials. Products are sold to municipal customers, national accounts, and independent waste haulers through a network of distributors and directly in certain geographic areas.

Fluids

Our Fluids segment is focused on the safe handling of critical fluids across the retail fueling, chemical, hygienic, oil and gas, and industrial markets. The segment serves two broad global end markets: Fluid Transfer and Pumps.

•

Fluid Transfer – Providing fully integrated fluid handling solutions from refineries and chemical-processing plants through point-to-point transfers, transportation, and delivery to the final point of consumption at retail and commercial fueling operations around the globe. This end market also specializes in the manufacturing of connectors for use in a variety of bio-processing applications. We strive to optimize safety, efficiency, reliability, and environmental sustainability through innovative fluid handling and information management solutions.

•	Pumps – The pumps and compressors are used to transfer liquid and bulk products and are sold to a wide variety of markets, including the refined fuels, LPG, food/sanitary, transportation, and chemical process industries. The pumps include positive displacement and centrifugal pumps that are used in demanding and specialized fluid transfer process applications.

Fluids' products are manufactured primarily in the United States, Europe, and China, and are sold throughout the world directly and through a network of distributors.

Refrigeration & Food Equipment

Our Refrigeration & Food Equipment segment is a provider of innovative and energy efficient equipment and systems serving the commercial refrigeration and food service end markets.

•	Refrigeration – Our businesses manufacture refrigeration systems, refrigeration display cases, specialty glass, commercial glass refrigerator and freezer doors, and brazed heat exchangers used in industrial and climate control.

•	Food Equipment – Our businesses manufacture electrical distribution products and engineering services, commercial food service equipment, cook-chill production systems, custom food storage and preparation products, kitchen ventilation systems, conveyer systems, beverage can-making machinery, and packaging machines used for meat, poultry, and other food products.

The majority of the refrigeration/food systems and machinery that are manufactured or serviced by the Refrigeration & Food Equipment segment are used by the supermarket industry, including “big-box” retail and convenience stores, the commercial/industrial refrigeration industry, institutional and commercial food service and food production markets, and beverage can-making industries. Refrigeration & Food Equipment's products are manufactured primarily in North America, Europe, and Asia and are sold globally, directly and through a network of distributors.

Raw Materials

We use a wide variety of raw materials, primarily metals and semi-processed or finished components, which are generally available from a number of sources. As a result, shortages or the loss of any single supplier have not had, and are not likely to have, a material impact on operating profits. While the required raw materials are generally available, commodity pricing can be volatile, particularly for various grades of steel, copper, aluminum, and select other commodities. Although cost increases in commodities may be recovered through increased prices to customers, our operating results are exposed to such fluctuations. We attempt to control such costs through fixed-price contracts with suppliers and various other programs, such as our global supply chain activities.

Research and Development

Our businesses are encouraged to develop new products as well as to upgrade and improve existing products to satisfy customer needs, expand revenue opportunities domestically and internationally, maintain or extend competitive advantages, improve product reliability, and reduce production costs. During 2015, we spent $115.0 million for research and development, including qualified engineering costs. In 2014 and 2013, research and development spending totaled $118.4 million and $117.2 million, respectively.

Our Engineered Systems segment expends significant effort in research and development because the rate of product development by their customers is often quite high. Our businesses that develop product identification and printing equipment believe that their customers expect a continuing rate of product innovation, performance improvement, and reduced costs. The result has been that product life cycles in these markets generally average less than five years with meaningful sales price reductions over that time period.

Our other segments contain many businesses that are also involved in important product improvement initiatives. These businesses also concentrate on working closely with customers on specific applications, expanding product lines and market applications, and continuously improving manufacturing processes. Most of these businesses experience a much more moderate rate of change in their markets and products than is generally experienced by the Engineered Systems segment.

Intellectual Property and Intangible Assets

Our businesses own many patents, trademarks, licenses, and other forms of intellectual property, which have been acquired over a number of years and, to the extent relevant, expire at various times over a number of years. A large portion of our businesses’ intellectual property consists of patents, unpatented technology, and proprietary information constituting trade secrets that we seek to protect in various ways, including confidentiality agreements with employees and suppliers where appropriate. In addition, a significant portion of our intangible assets relate to customer relationships. While our intellectual property and customer relationships are important to our success, the loss or expiration of any of these rights or relationships, or any group of related rights or relationships, is not likely to materially affect our results on a consolidated basis. We believe that our commitment to continuous engineering improvements, new product development, and improved manufacturing techniques, as well as strong sales, marketing, and service efforts, are significant to our general leadership positions in the niche markets we serve.

Customers

We serve thousands of customers, none one of which accounted for more than 10% of our consolidated revenue in 2015. Given our diversity of served markets, customer concentrations are quite varied. Businesses supplying the waste and recycling, agricultural, defense, energy, automotive, and commercial refrigeration industries tend to deal with a few large customers that are significant within those industries. This also tends to be true for businesses supplying the power generation and chemical industries. In the other markets served, there is usually a much lower concentration of customers, particularly where the companies provide a substantial number of products and services applicable to a broad range of end-use applications.

Seasonality

In general, our businesses, while not strongly seasonal, tend to have stronger revenue in the second and third quarters, particularly those serving the transportation, construction, waste and recycling, petroleum, commercial refrigeration, and food service markets. Our businesses serving the major equipment markets, such as power generation, chemical, and processing industries, have longer lead times geared to seasonal, commercial, or consumer demands, and tend to delay or accelerate product ordering and delivery to coincide with those market trends that tend to moderate the aforementioned seasonality patterns.

Backlog

Backlog is more relevant to our businesses that produce larger and more sophisticated machines or have long-term contracts, primarily for the markets within our Fluids and Refrigeration & Food Equipment segments. Our total backlog relating to our continuing operations as of December 31, 2015 and 2014 was $1.0 billion and $1.2 billion, respectively.

Competition

Our competitive environment is complex because of the wide diversity of our products manufactured and the markets served. In general, most of our businesses are market leaders that compete with only a few companies, and the key competitive factors are customer service, product quality, price, and innovation. However, as we become increasingly global, we are exposed to more competition. A summary of our key competitors by end market within each of our segments follows:

Segment		End Market		Key Competitors
Energy		Drilling & Production /Automation		DeBeers Group (Element Six), Schlumberger Ltd.,Weatherford International Ltd., General Electric (Lufkin), Baker Hughes, BORETS, and Novomet
		Bearings & Compression		Compression Products International, Hoerbiger Holdings AG, John Crane, Kingsbury
Engineered Systems		Printing & Identification		Danaher Corp. (Videojet), Brother Industries Ltd (Domino Printing), Electronics for Imaging
		Industrials		Oshkosh Corp. (McNeilus), Siemens AG (Weiss GmbH), Challenger Lifts, Labrie Enviroquip Group, and numerous others
Fluids		Fluid Transfer		Danaher Corp. (Gilbarco Veeder-Root), Franklin Electric, Gardner Denver, Inc. (Emco Wheaton), Wayne
		Pumps		IDEX Corp, Ingersoll Rand, ITT, SPX Corp.
Refrigeration & Food Equipment		Refrigeration		Panasonic (Hussman Corp.), Lennox International (Kysor/Warren), Alfa Laval
		Food Equipment		Manitowoc Company, Illinois Tool, Middleby

International

Consistent with our strategic focus on positioning our businesses for growth, we continue to increase our expansion into international markets, particularly in developing economies in South America, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.

Most of our non-U.S. subsidiaries and affiliates are currently based in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and, with increasing emphasis, Australia, Canada, China, Malaysia, India, Mexico, Brazil, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

The following table shows annual revenue derived from customers outside the U.S. as a percentage of total annual revenue for each of the last three years, by segment and in total:

	% Non-U.S. Revenue by Segment
	Years Ended December 31,
	2015			2014			2013
Energy	26	%		28	%		33	%
Engineered Systems	45	%		48	%		47	%
Fluids	49	%		53	%		51	%
Refrigeration & Food Equipment	33	%		35	%		36	%
Total percentage of revenue derived from customers outside of the U.S.	39	%		40	%		41	%

Our international operations are subject to certain risks, such as price and exchange rate fluctuations and non-U.S. governmental restrictions, which are discussed further in "Item 1A. Risk Factors." For additional details regarding our non-U.S. revenue and the geographic allocation of the assets of our continuing operations, see Note 16 Segment Information to the Consolidated Financial Statements in Item 8 of this Form 10-K.

Environmental Matters

Sustainability

In response to our concerns around global sustainability, in 2010, we developed and implemented a process to conduct an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, we have evaluated our climate change risks and opportunities and have developed an energy and climate change strategy that includes clearly defined goals and objectives, along with prioritized programs and projects for achieving energy use and greenhouse gas emissions reductions. To further promote our sustainability efforts, we have committed to reducing our overall energy and greenhouse gas intensity indexed to net revenue by 20% from 2010 to 2020. We have also participated as a voluntary respondent in the Carbon Disclosure Project since 2010.

All of our segments are investigating the energy efficiencies related to their operations and the use of their products and services by customers. In some instances, our businesses may be able to help customers reduce their energy needs. Increased demand for energy-efficient products, based on a variety of drivers (including, but not limited to, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions) could result in increased sales for a number of our businesses.

Other Matters

Our operations are governed by a variety of international, national, state, and local environmental laws. We are committed to continued compliance and believe our operations generally are in substantial compliance with these laws. In a few instances, particular plants and businesses have been the subject of administrative and legal proceedings with governmental agencies or private parties relating to the discharge or potential discharge of regulated substances. Where necessary, these matters have been addressed with specific consent orders to achieve compliance.

There have been no material effects upon our earnings and competitive position resulting from our compliance with laws or regulations enacted or adopted relating to the protection of the environment. We are aware of a number of existing or upcoming regulatory initiatives intended to reduce emissions in geographies where our manufacturing and warehouse/distribution facilities are located and have evaluated the potential impact of these regulations on our businesses. We anticipate that direct impacts from regulatory actions will not be significant in the short- to medium-term. We expect the regulatory impacts associated with climate change regulation would be primarily indirect and would result in "pass through" costs from energy suppliers, suppliers of raw materials, and other services related to our operations.

Employees

We had approximately 26,000 employees as of December 31, 2015.

Other Information

We make available through the "Financial Reports" link on our Internet website, http://www.dovercorporation.com, our annual reports on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K, and any amendments to these reports. We post each of these reports on the website as soon as reasonably practicable after the report is filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The information on our Internet website is not incorporated into this Form 10-K.