Diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corp said it would buy two companies in Europe and Asia to expand its electrical systems business outside the United States: The Moeller Group, a German electrical components maker, for 1.55 billion euros ($2.23 billion) and Taiwan-based Phoenixtec Power, which makes uninterruptible power supply systems, at NT$50 per share ($1.54 per share), which it said would make the net purchase price $565 million. There is a private equity element here — Eaton is buying Moeller from UK-based buyout firm Doughty Hanson, which is getting three times more than it paid for its investment — but the deal underscores the relative health of strategic activity.  Eaton bought a business from French electrical engineering group Schneider Electric in August and said in October it would spend up to $300 million on acquisitions in 2008.  
    
Italy is looking for better bids for Alitalia. Sporting 1.2 billion euros of debt and losing more than one million euros a day, the Italian national carrier would seem to have little to offer aside from its dominant position on the lucrative route from Milan to Rome. It’s been on the block for a year. At around 0.78 euros per share it has a market value of about 1.08 billion euros. The two bids out there are quite a bit more modest. Suitor Air France-KLM has bid 0.35 euros per share for Alitalia, offered to buy all of the airline’s convertible bonds and said it would cut up to 1,700 jobs. Air One, smaller than Alitalia but backed by Italy’s leading retail bank, has offered 1 euro cent per share, total investments of 5.3 billion euros and 3,700 job cuts. “What would seem useful to me is to work within the offers to improve them,” Transport Minister Alessandro Bianchi told Il Sole 24 Ore in an interview published in its Thursday issue.