Cooper Industries Purchases WPI Interconnect Products

Cooper Industries Ltd., Houston, bought privately held WPI Interconnect Products, Salem, N.J., for about $74.5 million. WPI makes customized connectors and cable assembly products for military, industrial and commercial uses. It had sales of $61 million in its most recent fiscal year. WPI will become part of the Cooper Crouse-Hinds Division .

The acquisition is part of Cooper’s strategy to expand into highly specialized product lines to broaden its existing businesses, the company said.

“WPI’s capabilities add substantial depth to our portfolio of highly customized specification-grade connector technologies for use in harsh, heavy-duty and hazardous locations. Coupled with our acquisition of G&H Technology in early 2006 and the existing Cooper Crouse-Hinds business, we now have greatly expanded our offering of highly engineered interconnect products for our customers,” said Kirk S. Hachigian, Cooper Industries chairman and CEO. “The WPI acquisition represents a continuation of the theme we laid out for investors in the 2006 Outlook meeting, specifically that we will build on existing platforms in the Cooper portfolio, expanding into highly customized and technical adjacencies that leverage our core strengths and represent solid profitable growth opportunities.”