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Wondering what Wall Street analysts think about this blockbuster deal? Check out this Wall Street Journal report. T&B stockholders have got to be pretty happy. According to the Business Wire release announcing the deal, “The acquisition price represents a 24 percent premium to Thomas & Betts’ closing stock price on Jan. 27, 2012 and a 35 percent premium to the volume weighted average stock price over the past 60 trading days.”

Seems the new branch they opened in Lincoln, Neb., last week wasn’t all Graybar, St. Louis, had in the works. The distributor will open a branch in Joplin, Mo., on Jan. 30. The facility, with a staff of three full-time employees, is located at 1705 S. Main St., and will stock local inventory with daily deliveries from Graybar’s Springfield, Mo., location. Area Manager Stephen Wallace will lead the branch operations. The new facility will serve the cities of Joplin, Webb City, Carthage, Neosho, Carl Junction and the counties of Newton and Jasper.

“We’ve been serving the Joplin area out of our Springfield location for some time and are excited to bring a higher level of service to our customers with this new branch,” said Graybar’s St. Louis District Vice President Mike Dumas.

Harold Kerman, 91, Former CEO of Steiner Electric Co., Elk Grove Village, Ill., passed away earlier this week. He was the husband of Joan Barbara (née Steiner) Kerman; son of the late George and Frieda Kerman; father of Robert J. (Diane) Kerman and Richard (Carol) Kerman; and grandfather of John (Aga) Kerman, Kyle Pucek, Joseph Kerman, Laura Jane (Eric) Meyer, Jacob, Adam, Jason Zimmerly and Josh Kerman; and special friend of Dale and Jeff Izenstark.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions in Harold Myron Kerman’s memory may be made to a charity of your choice. Visitation will be held Wednesday, January 25, 2012 from 4 – 8 pm at Weinstein Funeral Home, 111 Skokie Boulevard, Wilmette, IL 60091, 847-256-5700. Funeral service will be held the following day, Thursday, January 26, 11:00 am also at Weinstein Funeral Home. Interment will immediately follow at Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, IL.

Border States Electric, Fargo, N.D., is consolidating resources in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas and will close its McAllen and Weslaco branches on Ja. 26, according to a company press release. The release says the change will increase the number of employees, build up inventory, and augment the delivery fleet in the company’s Brownsville, Edinburg and Harlingen, Texas, locations to enhance customer service.
“We believe consolidating resources in Brownsville, Edinburg and Harlingen will allow us to better serve our customers and expand our service offering in the Rio Grande Valley,” said Tammy Miller, CEO, in the press statement.

This podcast previews this month’s EW features articles on Ken Hooper’s vision for NEMRA and how the cloud-based RepFiles content management system will help reps and other salespeople use their tablet computers more effectively on sales calls.
Click here to listen.

Several distributorships that State Electric Supply Co., Huntington, W. Va., purchased over the years will now carry the company’s name. Shepherd Electric Supply Group, Raleigh, N.C.; Ligon Electric Supply Co., Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Tolley Electric Co., Clarksburg, W. Va.; will now be known as State Electric Supply Co. Ligon Electric has been part of the State Electric family since 1992 and Shepherd Supply Group since 2007. Both companies supply products to residential, commercial, industrial and institutional customers throughout North Carolina. Tolley Electric Co. joined the State Electric family in 1986.
Founded in 1952, State Electric Supply is ranked #15 on Electrical Wholesaling’s listing of the Top 200 electrical distributors. The company expanded from its first location in Huntington to a network of 40 branches in six states. Fourteen of the forty branches are located in the state of North Carolina.

The Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger is reporting that Stuart M. Irby, former president of Stuart C. Irby Co., was found dead in his home yesterday. He was 58. The paper says his death is considered a suicide. He guided the company, founded by his grandfather, from 1984 to 2005, when it was sold to Sonepar.

Lighting manufacturer Lumenpulse let us know about this video showing the capabilities of the new LED lighting system at BC Place stadium in Vancouver, B.C. The relighting, provided by Lumenpulse, included the facade, the roof span and all the support masts and cables, and allows the stadium to animate abstract color patterns in response to goals or touchdowns or other highlights to enhance the audience experience as well as the Vancouver skyline.

Among the technologies on the cutting edges of research and development, we have cloud-based computing and solid-state lighting. So naturally, someone asked the question, “what if you put them together?” A Tokyo-based company, NetLED Technology Corp., has developed its answer to that question. It offers LED lighting that can be controlled using iPhone apps (iPad and Android versions due out this summer) via a cloud-based control interface. You can use your phone or tablet to dim the lights or switch them on and off. The system also makes it possible to track energy usage in real-time and to automatically aggregate data over an extended period of time.

Story via TechCrunch

EMCOR Group, Inc., Norwalk, Conn., has acquired Southern Industrial Constructors, Inc., an industrial services contractor, headquartered in Raleigh, N.C. Founded in 1962, Southern had 2011 estimated revenues of approximately $90 million.

According to information on Southern’s website, the company is a one-stop shop for turnkey industrial construction, industrial electrical construction, electrical panel shop fabrication, specialized metal fabrication, industrial plant maintenance, and turnkey crane & rigging services. Southern Industrial performs small, medium and large mechanical and electrical projects at process and manufacturing facilities all over the Eastern half of the United States. Details