♦  Yaskawa is merging its European drives operation Yaskawa Electric Europe with its robot operation Motoman robotec to create Yaskawa Europe. It says the step will allow a more integrated customer service, generate synergies and unite its products under a single brand. Yaskawa employs about 900 people in 14 European countries.

♦  The Taiwanese industrial communications specialist Korenix Technology, has entered into a strategic alliance with Westermo, under which Westermo’s parent, the Swedish-based Beijer Electronics Group will acquire a minority stake in Korenix. The two companies’ products and technology are said to complement each other and they aim to develop industrial data communications equipment jointly for the global market.

♦  The Schaeffler Group is investing more than €300m over the next two years to expand its manufacturing and r&d operations in Asia. The investment will include two new manufacturing plants in China and one in India, as well as developing and improving the group’s 11 existing manufacturing sites in China, India, Korea and Vietnam. R&d capacities in Japan and India will also be expanded.

♦  The measurement technology company Hexagon AB is buying the engineering software supplier Intergraph for $2.125bn from an investment group which acquired it in 2006. Intergraph will operate as a separate Hexagon division, keeping its name. Intergraph has more than 4,000 employees and is expected to report sales worth $830–840m this year.

♦  The US-based ITT Corporation is buying Godwin Pumps for $585m. Godwin, which specialises in automatic, self-priming portable pumps, employs about 800 people in the US and at its manufacturing plant in Gloucestershire.