By Meg Villeneuve

CLEANROOMS EUROPE — At the fourth annual CleanRooms Europe, cleanroom products manufacturer, ALMA, Inc. (Palm Springs, CA) announced that as of July 2, 2001, they would become a division of Illinois Tool Works (Glenview, IL). Terms of the sale were not disclosed.

Dennis Baldwin, Sr. VP of ALMA’s sales, called the merger an excellent fit. With ITW’s decentralized operating philosophy and substantial financial backing, ALMA will rapidly advance its production of sales without compromising our high standards of quality and customer satisfaction, says Baldwin.

With the merger, ALMA will become one more than 600 companies that operates independently under the ITW umbrella. Over the next year, ITW says it plans to acquire some 35-40 companies.

“We are looking for companies on the consumables side,” says Dan Miller, president of ITW’s contamination control group. “Our goal is acquire companies that are established, we don?t [usually] buy companies that need to be turned around.”

This announcement comes on the heels of ITW’s most recent merger with The Texwipe Company.