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ROCHESTER, NY -- Hover-Davis Inc., a provider of component feeders, will exclusively distribute the Laurier tray feeding product family to the worldwide end-user market. Terms were not disclosed.

Laurier’s OEM product offerings includes automated handling of JEDEC trays and waffle packs.

"Our target is to offer a comprehensive set of feeding solutions to the market,” said Roland Heitmann, Hover Davis director of semiconductor feeding solutions. “By adding the capability of handling JEDEC trays and waffle packs, we take another significant step to being a complete feeding solution provider for our customers.”

Laurier, part of Besi, manufactures back-end microelectronic assembly equipment.

TOYKO -- A pair of leading Japanese laminate suppliers are raising prices, according to a new report. In mid September, Matsushita Electric raised prices of copper laminates and prepreg about 15%.

SAN FRANCISCO -- IBM's successful recent quarter is good news for several companies that supply Big Blue with components and assemblies.

Among the big winners: Avnet and Arrow. IBM outsources an estimated $3 billion of manufacturing to the EMS industry and sells roughly $2.5 billion annually of hardware through Arrow and Avnet, according to Deutsche Bank.

MINNEAPOLIS -- SMTA is looking for speakers on converting to Pb-free for its one-day RoHS-compliance worksho, to be held Dec. 7 in Dallas.

Details on this workshop can be found at smta.org/education/symposia/symposia.cfm.

Speakers will need a 30-minute PowerPoint presentation, but no papers are required.

BRUSSELS -- The EU has exempted the flame retardant known as Deca-BDE from the Directive on the Restriction of Hazardous Substances, following an intensive review.

Germany's EPA is opposing the move.

ATLANTA -- Visiprise Inc. and HMS Software Inc. will merge operations, forming a manufacturing software environment provider with more than 270 employees and more than 200 customers.

The merged company will retain the Visiprise name and will be run by Visiprise CEO Sean McCloskey.

The transaction is scheduled to close in November and includes $32 million of new financing led by Investor Growth Capital and Westbury Partners.

McCloskey said, “Visiprise’s roots stem from the high-volume electronics industry. Manufacturers will be using our solutions to build everything from thousands of circuit boards to complex jet engines. In addition, the revenue and customer scale enhances our partnerships with SAP and UGS.”

HMS Software president and cofounder Alex Houtzeel will join the Visiprise board of directors, and with Rob McNiff will jointly run the aerospace and defense business unit.