• The automation and sensing company Turck has bought the US industrial networking specialist, InterlinkBT. The acquisition will add products including bus network I/O and interfaces to Turck`s portfolio.

• Omron in North America is transferring its industrial and HVAC inverter distribution business to Yaskawa, which manufactures the AC drives. The move is in the opposite direction to that adopted in Europe where Omron has taken on responsibility for most of Yaskawa`s drives sales.

• Bosch Rexroth has merged its industrial and mobile hydraulics business units. Manfred Grundke will assume overall responsibility for the new business, in addition to being president of Bosch Rexroth.

• The Chinese PLC market is expected to grow at a compounded annual rate of 14.1% over the next five years, despite a decline in prices. The ARC Advisory Group forecasts that, over this period, the market will almost double in size from $370m last year.