Saint-Gobain Abrasives, Inc. acquired Merit Abrasives, a specialty abrasives products manufacturer based in Compton, Calif. The terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Merit employs nearly 180 people worldwide. Paris-based Saint-Gobain totaled $26.6 billion in 2000 sales. A company spokesperson reported that Merit's management team would be retained although the Compton operation will be transferred to other Merit locations.

Supply chain software supplier, MRO Software, Inc. announced General Motors has expanded its commitment to the solution provider. GM uses MRO Software's Maximo® enterprise asset maintenance at 120 sites and now plans to use Maximo Extended Enterprise plant floor e-Commerce tools at more than 80 North American sites to streamline the supply chain.

BuildNet, Inc., announced that it, along with six of its subsidiaries, filed a petition for relief under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code in the United States Bankruptcy Court. BuildNet's wholly owned subsidiary, NxTrend, was not included in the filing. BuildNet's petition for relief comes after HomeSphere rescinded its offer to merge with BuildNet.

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Bijur Lubricating Corp., a division of Vesper Corp., acquired Delimon Fluhme GmbH ... DXP sold Tri-Electric Supply, a San Antonio-based electrical supplier, to Summit Electric ... Gardner Denver, Inc. agreed to acquire the Hamworthy & Morcom compressor business from Powell Duffryn Ltd. ... Westvaco announced the acquisition of Poly-Matrix by its AGI Media Packaging subsidiary ... Sandvik agreed to the acquisition of shares resulting in a controlling interest in WALTER AG ... Dana Corp. completed the sale of industrial polymer bearings businesses to Goodrich Corp.

Rodney R. Yarger, president of Sterling Rubber and Plastics and United Industrial Suppliers was honored as a finalist for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award ... Applied Industrial Technologies received a 2000 Bronze Alliance Supplier Award from Vulcan Materials Co. ... Categoric Software was named to Supply Chain e-Business magazine Top 100 ... Columbus McKinnon received W.W. Grainger's Customer Focused Quality 1 Award ... United Sales Associates announced that the 2001 recipients of The Mark E. Maag Memorial Scholarship are Mr. Isaiah B. Haynie and Mr. Brian E. Coe ... Prime Industries was honoroed as Bostik Findley's Distributor of the year.

Send Update information to associate editor Richard Trombly, 275 Washington St., Newton, Mass., 02458; call (617) 558-4289; fax to (617) 558-4327; or e-mail rtrombly@cahners.com.

Estwing has successfully stopped California's Cal-Rainbow Products from selling hammers having Estwing's distinctive blue grip. Estwing obtained a permanent injunction from the United States District Court in Fort Worth, Texas, barring the import company from infringing upon Estwing 's trademark rights.

Kennametal Inc. has formed a strategic alliance with Penn State University to conduct research in materials science, manufacturing process and metal cutting technologies. The partnership will provide Penn State with research support.

Applied Industrial Technologies Executive Committee of the Board of Directors authorized the purchase of up to one million shares of the company's common stock. This represents approximately 5 percent of the shares currently outstanding. During the current calendar year through September 14, the company has repurchased 652,000 shares.

"We have been authorizing purchases continuously since 1997," said CFO and treasurer John R. Whitten. "To date, we have bought back about 3.5 million shares."