An analysis of the acoustic emissions of air bubbles fragmenting in sheared fluid flow is presented. The fragmentation of bubbles into two products only is considered. While the measured pressure amplitude is highly variable, the partition of energy between fragmentation products is highly correlated. The partition of energy between products is, on average, approximately equal irrespective of the relative sizes of the bubble products. This observation suggests that the acoustic excitation mechanism is common to both bubbles immediately prior to fragmentation. A model for the excitation mechanism based on symmetric collapse of the neck of air joining fragmentation products is proposed and found to be sufficient to explain the range of observed bubble pulse amplitudes and the equal partition of energy.