17 Jan 12. Louis Gallois, the EADS chief executive, has called for “patience” over the delayed appointment of his successor amid increased tensions over the issue between the European aircraft maker’s French and German state shareholders. Mr Gallois had set himself the goal of making the parent of Airbus a “normal company” after previous damaging disputes between its Franco-German shareholders, which each control 22.5 per cent of EADS. However, in his valedictory New Year press conference in Hamburg, the outgoing chief was forced to justify the delay in naming Tom Enders, the German boss of Airbus, as his successor. The decision was expected in December. But some EADS sources claim it has been held up by concerns in Paris about Mr Enders’ plans for the company and the national make-up of his management team, while Germany’s decision to buy a 7.5 per cent stake(Source: FT.com)

20 Jan 12. Micron Technology, Inc. (Nasdaq:MU), and Virtensys Ltd. announced that the companies have signed an agreement for Micron to acquire the assets of privately held Virtensys, a provider of PCIe-sharing solutions based in Manchester, England and Beaverton, Ore. The transaction would further strengthen Micron’s enterprise storage portfolio by combining Virtensys’ award-winning PCIe virtualization technology with Micron’s solid state drives (SSDs), enabling data centers to share local storage across multiple servers. “Virtensys’ PCIe-sharing technology has helped change the way data center operators manage and deploy their virtualized I/O resources, and Micron’s enterprise PCIe drive delivers market-leading speed, reliability and power efficiency,” said Edward Doller, Micron Vice President and Chief Memory Systems Architect. “This agreement would enable a combination of enterprise technology solutions that have the opportunity to virtualize SSD storage on the path to a more flexible and dynamic data center.”

20 Jan 12. TransDigm Group Incorporated (NYSE: TDG – News) announced a definitive agreement to purchase AmSafe Global Holdings, Inc., a privately-owned, world leading supplier of innovative, highly engineered and proprietary safety and restraint equipment used primarily in the global aerospace industry. AmSafe is being purchased for a total purchase price of approximately $750m in cash from a group controlled by Berkshire Partners LLC and Greenbriar Equity Group LLC. The price includes substantial tax benefits to be realized by TransDigm in 2012 and beyond. TransDigm expects to finance the acquisition through a combination of new senior bank debt and cash and has obtained commitments for the full amount of financing to execute this transaction. AmSafe, headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, had calendar 2011 revenue of about $260m. Approximately 80% of the revenues and 90% of the profits come from the commercial aerospace and military markets with the balance from the commercial ground vehicle market. Less than 10% of revenues are from products sold to the military market. Approximately 65% of total revenues come from the aftermarket, primarily commercial transport aircraft. Excluding the commercial ground vehicle business, about 85% of revenues are from the aftermarket. (Source: Yahoo!/PRNewswire)

19 Jan 12. PPG Industries (NYSE:PPG – News) reported net sales for the fourth quarter 2011 of $3.5bn, an increase of 4 percent versus the prior year’s fourth quarter. Net income for the quarter increased to $216m, or $1.39 per diluted share. Fourth quarter 2010 net sales were $3.4bn, and net income was $205m, or $1.24 per diluted share. PPG’s annual sales for 2011 were $14.9bn, an increase of 11 percent versus 2010 sales of $13.4bn. PPG’s full year 2011 net income was $1.1bn, or $6.87 per diluted share, versus 2010 net income of $769m, or $4.63 per diluted share. Full year 2010 adjusted net income was $854m, or $5.14 per diluted share. The company’s full year tax rate on ongoing earnings was 25 percent in 2011 and 26 percent in 2010. (Source: