HOUSTON, Nov. 1, HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: HCC) announced that the company had completed its previously announced acquisition of ASU International, Inc., located in Woburn, MA. ASU is an underwriting agency focusing on specialty lines of insurance, being especially noted for pioneering non-traditional disability products for professional athletes, entertainers and high profile individuals in the business world. HCC is principally engaged in providing aviation, marine, offshore energy, property, accident and health, and lenders single interest insurance and reinsurance on a worldwide basis.

ANDOVER, Nov. 1, MKS Instruments, Inc. (Nasdaq: MKSI) announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire the ENI division of Emerson (NYSE: EMR). Under the terms of the agreement, MKS will issue 12 million shares of common stock to Emerson in exchange for the businesses and assets of ENI. Based on MKS' closing stock price on October 30, 2001 of $20.91, the transaction is valued at $251 million. MKS will also assume approximately $3.5 million of net debt. ENI, based in Rochester, NY, employs more than 600 people worldwide. MKS Instruments develops, manufactures and markets instruments and components used to measure, control and analyze gases in semiconductor manufacturing and similar industrial manufacturing processes.

BEDFORD, Nov. 6, Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, announced that it has acquired Boston Probes, Inc., a privately-held company focused on development of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) probe technology. Applied Biosystems previously acquired 13 percent of Boston Probes in June 2000. In the agreement, the company has acquired the remaining 87 percent of the outstanding shares of Boston Probes and all of the outstanding shares of PNA-Diagnostics A/S, a privately-held Danish company, for $32.8 million in cash. PNA-Diagnostics holds certain intellectual property rights related to peptide nucleic acids. Boston Probes, based in Bedford, MA, has developed chemistry platforms based on its PNA technology.