BOSTON,
Dec. 3, Keane, Inc. (Amex: KEA) announced that it has
completed its acquisition of Metro Information Services, Inc.
Metro shareholders holding approximately 84 percent of Metro's
outstanding shares voted in favor of the merger. Keane expects
to achieve operational leverage by combining branch offices
in major markets. Of Metro's 33 branch operations, 26 offices
are within geographic markets currently served by Keane. The
combined entity will increase Keane's average branch size
to about $27 million from approximately $22 million.
FRAMINGHAM,
Dec. 4, NMS Communications (NASDAQ: NMSS) announced
that it has completed the acquisition of the voice enhancement
and echo cancellation business of Lucent Technologies (NYSE:
LU). Under an agreement with Lucent, announced on October
15, NMS paid $60 million in cash for all assets of this
business. NMS is also entering into a multi-year agreement
to serve as the exclusive supplier of stand-alone voice
enhancement and echo cancellation systems for Lucent, as
Lucent continues to supply these systems to its global service
provider customers.
CAMBRIDGE,
Dec. 6, Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:
MLNM) and COR Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: CORR) today announced
that they have signed a definitive agreement for Millennium
to acquire San Francisco based COR in a stock-for-stock
exchange valued at $2.0 billion. The combined company will
be named Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc., with worldwide
headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
HOLLISTON,
Dec. 6, Harvard Bioscience (NASDAQ:HBIO) announced
the completion of its acquisition, through its Biochrom
subsidiary in the UK, of Asys Hitech GmbH, based in Salzburg,
Austria. In addition, Asys designs, manufactures and markets
an extensive range of Microtitre Platereaders, many of which
are incorporated in fully automated HTS systems around the
world by way of OEM agreements. Harvard Bioscience is a
global developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative,
enabling tools in drug discovery research at pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies, universities and government
laboratories
NORWOOD,
Dec. 7, Nashua, N.H. based SkillSoft Corporation (Nasdaq:
SKIL), a leader in critical business skill e-Learning solutions
for Global 2000 companies, announced that it has signed
a definitive agreement to acquire Books24x7.com, Inc.,
based in Norwood, MA, for a fixed number of shares and fixed
amount of cash valued at approximately $32.4 million (based
on the closing price of SkillSoft common stock on December
6, 2001, at $20.98 per share). Approximately 80% of the
purchase price is being paid in the form of SkillSoft common
stock, with the balance being paid in cash. The company
anticipates closing the transaction during the 2002 fiscal
fourth quarter ending January 31, 2002.
|
1 
