♦  Bison Gear & Engineering, the US manufacturer of small motors and gear-motors, has acquired the Canadian motor-maker, Von Weise, whose products include 12–24V brushless DC motors from 80-225W, with integrated speed controls. The move is intended to tap the growing market for compact, efficient brushless motors.

♦  Mitsubishi Electric has reached an agreement with Infineon Technologies to supply advanced IGBT modules to the global motion controls and drives market. Mitsubishi will offer its latest power chips with ratings from 15–200A, 600V and 1.2kV, in Infineon’s SmartPack and SmartPim packages. 

♦  Honeywell is buying the Canadian industrial software specialist Matrikon, for $142m. Matrikon, which develops software mainly for process applications, had sales worth $80m in the year to February 2010. It will be integrated into Honeywell’s process solutions group.