• Emerson reported Feb. 1 that it's completed the sale of its France-based Leroy-Somer and U.K.-based Control Techniques divisions to Japan-based Nidec Corp. for $1.2 billion. The two divisions have about 9,500 employees worldwide, and manufacture alternators, drives and motors. Their combined revenue for FY 2015 was approximately $1.7 billion.
• Bedrock Automation and Jacobs Engineering Group Inc. agreed Jan. 18 to pursue projects with automation requirements for potential implementation of Bedrock's Open Secure Automation (OSA) system, which includes its Black Fabric Cybershield architecture for intrinsic cybersecure automation.
• Schneider Electric reported Feb. 2 that it's purchased real-time 3D software manufacturer MWPowerlab s.r.l. This acquisition adds advanced virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology to Schneider’s industrial software portfolio.
• Honeywell Process Solutions and Aereon announced Jan. 10 that they'll collaborate on solutions to help industrial customers boost the safety, efficiency and reliability of their operations by leveraging Honeywell's INspire IIoT ecosystem. Recognized for its air emissions solutions for the oil and gas sector from the wellhead to the gas station, Aeron offers products for flare systems, enclosed combustion systems, high efficiency thermal oxidizers and vapor/gas recovery units.
Related: more industry expansions and contractions:
• Analytical Graphics Inc. (AGI) and Bentley Systems announced Jan. 18 that Bentley is a co-founder of the new Cesium Consortium, which will enable AGI and Bentley to collaborate on the Cesium roadmap to better accelerate and support the requirements for building infrastructure modeling (BIM) and for owners of infrastructure facilities and assets.
• To enable intelligent, informed oil and gas drilling, Erdos Miller announced Jan. 31 that it's created a refined, continuous inclination and azimuth algorithm that can calculate the inclination of a survey tool during drilling, rather than requiring a rig to cease operations, allow the bottom hole assembly to settle, and use a static survey measurement instrument to measure inclination measurement free of vibration interference.
• U.K.-based Electrocomponents plc, "the distributor for engineers," announced Jan. 30 its appointment of Steve Newland as president of its Allied Electronics division in North America. Newland also joined Electrocomponents on Feb. 7 as a member of the company's executive management team, reporting directly to CEO Lindsley Ruth.
