Item 1. Business.

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Masco Corporation manufactures, distributes and installs home improvement and building products, with an emphasis on brand-name consumer products and services holding leadership positions. We are among the largest manufacturers in North America of a number of home improvement and building products, including faucets, cabinets, architectural coatings and windows, and we are a leading provider of services that include the installation of insulation and other building products. We provide broad product offerings in a variety of styles and price points and distribute products through multiple channels, including directly to homebuilders and wholesale and retail channels. Approximately 81 percent of our 2014 sales were generated by our North American operations.

The market for home improvement and building products at retailers increased by approximately four percent during 2014, despite continued economic uncertainties and modest consumer spending. Housing starts increased approximately ten percent during 2014.

Throughout 2014, we continued the execution of our strategy to position the Company for future growth, focusing on three strategic pillars: leveraging opportunities across our businesses, driving the full potential of our core businesses and actively managing our portfolio. We achieved gains in each of these areas. First, we leveraged our product leadership positions by expanding our brands and introducing innovative new and improved products. We believe that we gained share in our North American plumbing business with our DELTA®, PEERLESS®, and BRIZO® brands, and internationally with our HANSGROHE® products. In addition to its strong position with the "do-it-yourself" consumer, our decorative architectural products businesses continued to focus on the professional segment with BEHRPRO® paint and KILZ® PRO-X product lines. BEHR® paint expanded its MARQUEE® product line from exterior paint to interior paint and continued to pursue international opportunities. Milgard Manufacturing, our manufacturer of windows in the western U.S., and our U.K. Window Group continued to gain share.

To help drive the full potential of our core businesses, the second pillar of our strategy, we adopted a leaner operating model. We are transforming our corporate structure to a center-led model. We believe this model will increase our business units' efficiencies and our overall effectiveness as an organization. This change will align our corporate structure to support our strategy to drive the full potential of our businesses. In addition, we continued reducing costs and implementing lean principles and production process improvements. Our Installation and Other Services segments saw progress toward its goals during 2014 through incremental new home construction activity, cost reductions from lean processes and leveraging our ERP system and supply chain savings. During 2014, we remained focused on improvements at our Cabinets and Related Products businesses, which continued to face challenges.

The third pillar of our strategy is to actively manage our portfolio. In September 2014, we announced a plan to spin off 100 percent of our Installation and Other Services businesses into an independent, publicly-traded company through a tax-free stock distribution to our shareholders. We believe that these businesses will be better positioned to operate as a separate company that will focus on growth by capitalizing on new home construction in the United States as well as further expanding into commercial and retrofit categories. The transaction is expected to be completed in mid-2015.

To further drive value creation for our shareholders, our Board of Directors approved the repurchase of an aggregate 50 million shares of our common stock and increased our dividend by 20 percent. During 2014, we repurchased 7 million shares (including 1.7 million shares repurchased in the first quarter of 2014 to offset the dilutive impact of long-term stock awards) of our common stock. At December 31, 2014, we had approximately $1.7 billion of cash, cash investments and short-term bank deposits.

We believe that the actions we took during 2014 help provide the foundation for us to enhance future shareholder value. We also believe that the spin-off of our Installation and Other Services businesses will allow us to pursue a more focused strategy of growth through the innovation and manufacturing of

branded building products. We plan to continue to actively manage our portfolio, identify growth opportunities in key industries and produce new products that differentiate us in the marketplace. By continuing our disciplined execution of our strategy, we believe that we will increase shareholder value by enhancing our customer experience and improving our efficiencies.

Our Business Segments

We report our financial results in five business segments aggregated by similarity in products and services. The following table sets forth the contribution of our segments to net sales and operating profit (loss) for the three years ended December 31, 2014. Additional financial information concerning our operations by segment and by geographic regions, as well as general corporate expense, net, as of and for the three years ended December 31, 2014, is set forth in Note P to our consolidated financial statements included in Item 8 of this Report.

					(In Millions)
		Net Sales (1)
		2014			2013			2012
Cabinets and Related Products		$	999		$	1,014		$	939
Plumbing Products			3,308			3,183			2,955
Installation and Other Services			1,515			1,412			1,209
Decorative Architectural Products			1,998			1,927			1,818
Other Specialty Products			701			637			574
​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​
Total		$	8,521		$	8,173		$	7,495
​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​
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		Operating Profit (Loss) (1)(2)(3)(4)
		** 2014**			** 2013**			** 2012**
Cabinets and Related Products		$	(62	)	$	(10	)	$	(89	)
Plumbing Products			512			394			307
Installation and Other Services			58			37			(19	)
Decorative Architectural Products			360			351			329
Other Specialty Products			47			35			(31	)
​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​	​
Total		$	915		$	807		$	497
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(1)

Amounts exclude discontinued operations.

(2)

Operating profit (loss) is before general corporate expense, net, and gain on sale of fixed assets, net.

(3)

Operating profit (loss) is before income of $9 million regarding the 2014 litigation settlement in the Decorative Architectural Products segment and before net charges of $77 million regarding the 2012 litigation settlement, primarily in the Installation and Other Services segment.

(4)

Operating profit (loss) includes impairment charges for other intangible assets as follows: For 2012 – Other Specialty Products – $42 million.

All of our operating segments, except the Plumbing Products segment, normally experience stronger sales during the second and third calendar quarters, corresponding with the peak season for new home construction and repair and remodel activity.

Cabinets and Related Products

In North America, we manufacture and sell value-priced, stock and semi-custom assembled cabinetry for kitchen, bath, storage, home office and home entertainment applications in a broad range of styles and price points to address consumer preferences. We have also expanded our product offerings in this segment to include the manufacture and sale of kitchen countertops, as well as an integrated bathroom vanity and countertop solution. In the United Kingdom, we manufacture and sell assembled and ready-to-assemble kitchen, bath, and storage cabinetry. Our KRAFTMAID® brand is sold primarily to dealers, home centers and mass merchants and our MERILLAT®, MOORES™ and QUALITY CABINETS™ brands are sold primarily to dealers and homebuilders for both home improvement and new home construction. Cabinet sales are significantly affected by levels of activity in both new home construction and retail consumer spending, particularly spending for major kitchen and bathroom renovation projects. A significant portion of our sales for home improvement are made through home center retailers.

Our Cabinets and Related Products segment was particularly affected by the economic downturn and decline in new home construction and repair and remodel activity. While improving, consumer spending for big ticket remodeling projects, including large kitchen and bath remodeling projects, continues to be below normal levels, which impacts our profitability. Although home construction is improving and is expected to continue to improve, the demand for new homes remains below the historic average and demand has increased for multi-family housing units, which are smaller than single-family housing units and require fewer cabinets for the kitchen and bathrooms. In addition, our initiatives to improve this segment, including rationalizing our businesses, closing plants and reducing headcount, have been complex, time-consuming and expensive. The consolidation of our North American cabinet businesses has involved the integration of multiple manufacturing processes and information technology platforms and continues to affect our operations. We continue to focus on our cost structure in this segment and improving cabinet production efficiencies. Although faced with challenges, we are continuing to pursue our strategy to increase sales in this segment through brand building, new product introductions aimed to provide differentiated products to our multiple sales channels, and product innovation.

The cabinet manufacturing industry in the United States and the United Kingdom includes several large competitors and numerous local and regional competitors. In recent years, we have experienced significant competition in the form of discounts and new product offerings by our competitors, which have impacted the segment's results of operations. We also face competition from foreign manufacturers. In addition to price, we believe that competition in this industry is based largely on product quality, responsiveness to customer needs, product features and selection. Our North American competitors include American Woodmark Corporation, Fortune Brands Home & Security, Inc. and Norcraft Companies, Inc.

The raw materials used in this segment are primarily hardwood lumber, plywood and particleboard, and are available from multiple sources, both domestic and foreign.

Plumbing Products

The businesses in our Plumbing Products segment sell a wide variety of faucet, bathing and showering devices that are manufactured by or for us. The majority of our plumbing products are sold in North America and Europe under the brand names DELTA®, PEERLESS®, HANSGROHE®, AXOR®, BRIZO®, BRASSTECH®, BRISTAN™, GINGER®, HERITAGE™, NEWPORT BRASS® and PLUMB SHOP®. Our products include single-handle and double-handle faucets, showerheads, handheld showers, valves, bathing units and toilets. These products are sold to major retail accounts and to wholesalers and distributors that, in turn, sell our products to plumbers, building contractors, remodelers, smaller retailers and others.

Our spas are manufactured and sold under HOT SPRING®, CALDERA®, FREEFLOW® and other trademarks directly to independent specialty retailers as well as through online mass merchant retailers. Competitors include Jacuzzi, Sundance Spas, Master Spas and Dynasty Spas. We sell HÜPPE® shower enclosures through wholesale channels in Europe. HERITAGE™ ceramic and acrylic bath fixtures and faucets are principally sold in the United Kingdom directly to select retailers.

In 2014, we completed the process of integrating our plumbing products sold under our AQUA GLASS® and AMERICAN SHOWER & BATH™ brands into the DELTA and PEERLESS brands. Our acrylic tub and shower systems, bath and shower enclosure units, shower trays and laundry tubs are now manufactured and sold under the DELTA, PEERLESS, and MIROLIN® brand names. These products are sold primarily to home center retailers for home improvement and new home construction in North America, although our MIROLIN products are also sold to wholesalers and distributors in Canada.

Also included in our Plumbing Products segment are brass and copper plumbing system components and other plumbing specialties, which are sold to plumbing, heating and hardware wholesalers and to home center retailers, hardware stores, building supply outlets and other mass merchandisers. These products are marketed in North America for the wholesale trade under our BRASSCRAFT®, COBRA®, PLUMB SHOP®, and BRASSTECH®, and MASTER PLUMBER® trademarks, and are also sold under private label.

We believe that our plumbing products are among the leaders in sales in North America and Europe, with American Standard Brands, Kohler Co., Fortune Brands Home & Security Inc. and Pfister Faucets as major competitors. We are also experiencing competition from foreign manufacturers, including Grohe, particularly in Germany, China and the Middle East. We face significant competition from private label products (including house brands sold by certain of our customers). Many of the faucet and showering products with which our products compete are manufactured by foreign manufacturers that are putting downward pressure on price. The businesses in our Plumbing Products segment source products primarily from Asia and manufacture products in the United States, Europe and Asia. In addition to price, we believe that competition for our plumbing products is based largely on brand reputation, product quality, product innovation and features and breadth of product offering.

A substantial portion of our plumbing products contain brass, the major components of which are copper and zinc. We have multiple sources, both domestic and foreign, for the raw materials used in this segment, and sufficient raw materials have been available for our needs. We have encountered price volatility for brass, brass components and any components containing copper and zinc; therefore, we have implemented a hedging strategy to help reduce the impact of this volatility.

Federal legislation mandating a national standard for lead content in plumbing products used to convey drinking water became effective in January 2014. Faucet and water supply valve manufacturers, including our plumbing product companies, are required to obtain adequate supplies of lead-free brass or suitable alternative materials for continued production of faucets and certain of our other plumbing products. Our plumbing products that are affected by this legislation meet the federal standards, including our Delta Faucet products that use DIAMOND™ SEAL TECHNOLOGY, which also reduces the number of potential leak points in a faucet and simplifies installation.

Installation and Other Services

Our Installation and Other Services segment sells installed building products and distributes building products primarily for new home construction, and, to a lesser extent, retrofit and commercial construction, throughout the United States. In addition to insulation, we sell installed gutters, after-paint products, garage doors and fireplaces. The installation and distribution of insulation comprised approximately thirteen percent, twelve percent and eleven percent of our consolidated net sales in 2014, 2013 and 2012, respectively. We install building products primarily to homebuilders through our network of branches located across the United States. Our distributed products include insulation, insulation

accessories, gutters and roofing, among others. Distributed products are sold primarily to contractors and dealers (including lumber yards) from distribution centers in various parts of the United States.

We continue to pursue the expansion of this segment to serve the residential and commercial channels and custom homes and we have several initiatives related to improved residential energy efficiency, including retrofit installation services (primarily insulation) delivered directly to homeowners and traditional remodeling contractors, as well as through retailers and dealer outlets.

In addition to price, we believe that competition in this industry is based largely on customer service and the quality of installation service. We believe that we are a leading provider of installed insulation in the new home construction industry in the United States. Our competitors include Installed Building Products and several regional contractors, as well as numerous local contractors and lumber yards. We believe that our capabilities and financial resources are substantial compared to regional and local contractors.

We procure the materials used by this segment, primarily insulation, from multiple sources.

Decorative Architectural Products

We produce architectural coatings including paints, primers, specialty paint products, stains and waterproofing products. The products are sold in the United States, Canada, China, Mexico and South America under the brand names BEHRPRO®, BEHR® and KILZ® to "do-it-yourself" and professional customers through home centers and other retailers. Net sales of architectural coatings comprised approximately 21 percent in 2014 and 2013 and approximately 20 percent of our consolidated net sales in 2012. Our competitors include large national and international brands such as Benjamin Moore, Glidden, Olympic, PPG, Sherwin-Williams, Valspar and Zinsser, as well as many regional and other national brands. In addition to price, we believe that competition in this industry is based largely on product quality, technology and product innovation, customer service and brand reputation. In 2014, Behr introduced MARQUEE® Interior Paint that delivers high-performance, one-coat coverage with every color in the exclusive MARQUEE Interior One-Coat Color Collection.

Our BEHR products are principally sold through The Home Depot, this segment's and our largest customer. The loss of this segment's sales to The Home Depot would have a material adverse effect on this segment's business and on our consolidated business as a whole.

Titanium dioxide is a major ingredient in the manufacture of paint. The price for titanium dioxide can fluctuate as a result of surges in global demand and production capacity limitations, which can impact our operating results in this segment. Petroleum products are also used in the manufacture of architectural coatings. Significant increases in the cost of crude oil and natural gas lead to higher raw material costs (e.g., for resins, solvents and packaging, as well as titanium dioxide), which can adversely affect the segment's results of operations. We have agreements with the significant suppliers of the major raw materials used in this segment which are intended to help assure continued availability.

Our Decorative Architectural Products segment also includes LIBERTY® and BRAINERD® branded cabinet, door, window and other hardware, which is manufactured for us and sold to home centers, other retailers, original equipment manufacturers and wholesalers. Key competitors in North America include Amerock, Top Knobs and house brands. Decorative bath hardware and shower accessories are sold under the brand names DELTA®, FRANKLIN BRASS® and DECOR BATHWARE® to distributors, home centers and other retailers. Competitors include Moen, Gatco and house brands sold by certain of our customers.

Other Specialty Products

We manufacture and sell vinyl, fiberglass and aluminum windows and patio doors, as well as the ESSENCE SERIES® windows and doors, which combines a wood interior with a fiberglass exterior,

under the MILGARD® brand name for home improvement and new home construction, principally in the western United States. MILGARD products are sold primarily through dealers and, to a lesser extent, directly to production and custom homebuilders and through lumber yards and home centers. This segment's competitors in North America include national brands, such as Jeld-Wen, Marvin, Pella and Andersen, and numerous regional brands.

In the United Kingdom, we manufacture and sell windows, doors, related products and components under several brand names including GRIFFIN™, PREMIER™ and DURAFLEX™. Sales are primarily through dealers and wholesalers to the repair and remodeling markets, although our DURAFLEX products are also sold to other window fabricators. United Kingdom competitors include many small and mid-sized firms and a few large, vertically integrated competitors.

In addition to price, we believe that competition in this industry in both the domestic and foreign markets is based largely on customer service, product quality and brand reputation.

We manufacture and sell a complete line of manual and electric staple gun tackers, staples and other fastening tools under the brand names ARROW® and POWERSHOT®. We sell these products through various distribution channels including home centers and other retailers and wholesalers. Our principal North American competitor in this product line is Stanley Black & Decker.

The raw materials used in this segment have been available from multiple sources.

Additional Information

We hold U.S. and foreign patents, patent applications, licenses, trademarks, trade names, trade secrets and proprietary manufacturing processes. As a manufacturer and distributor of brand name products, we view our trademarks and other intellectual property rights as important, but do not believe that there is any reasonable likelihood of a loss of such rights that would have a material adverse effect on our present business as a whole.

We are subject to U.S. and foreign government regulations, particularly those pertaining to health and safety (including protection of employees and consumers), climate disruption and environmental issues. In addition to our responsibilities for environmental remediation, our businesses are subject to other requirements regarding protection of the environment and worker health and safety. Our businesses are subject to requirements relating to the emission of volatile organic compounds which may impact our sourcing of particleboard and may require that we install special equipment in manufacturing facilities or that we reformulate paint products. As described above, our Plumbing Products segment is subject to restrictions on lead content in some of its products. Compliance with such laws and regulations could significantly affect product performance as well as our production costs. We monitor applicable laws and regulations relating to the protection of the environment, climate disruption and worker health and safety, and incur ongoing expense relating to compliance. We do not expect compliance with the federal, state and local regulations relating to the discharge of materials into the environment, or otherwise relating to the protection of the environment and worker health and safety, will result in material capital expenditures or have a material adverse effect on our earnings or competitive position.

We do not consider backlog orders to be material in any of our segments.

At December 31, 2014, we employed approximately 32,000 people. We have generally experienced satisfactory relations with our employees.

Available Information

Our website is www.masco.com. Our periodic reports and all amendments to those reports required to be filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 are available free of charge through our website as soon as reasonably practicable after those reports are electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. This Report is being posted on our website concurrently with its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Material contained on our website is not incorporated by reference into this Report.