Rockwell Automation announced it has expanded its motion control business by completing the acquisition of MagneMotion, a manufacturer of patented conveyor systems with servo-controlled independent cart technology. The addition of this new offering will integrate into existing Rockwell Automation control, safety and sensing solutions to help manufacturers transport products and heavy loads between machines and throughout a plant.

​Tata Consultancy Services, a leading global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization, announced that as a new member of the GE Digital Alliance Program created by GE Digital, it will develop innovative digital solutions that increase the productivity of mobile workforces and assets in motion by leveraging Predix, GE's cloud platform for the Industrial Internet.

The Object Management Group (OMG) and the OPC Foundation announced a collaborative strategy for market and technical interoperability for two standards for the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The OMG and OPC Foundation have developed a technical positioning and FAQ document for usage of both the OMG Data Distribution Service (DDS) standard and the OPC Unified Architecture (OPC UA) standard.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced that the acquisition of KBC Advanced Technologies plc (Headquarters: Walton on Thames, Surrey, UK) was implemented by means of court sanctioned scheme of arrangement under Part 26 of the UK Companies Act on April 7, and that KBC has now become a member company of the Yokogawa Group.

OSIsoft LLC, a global leader enabling operational intelligence, announced that Mitsui & Co., Ltd. has become an equity investor in the company.

Stratus Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of continuous availability solutions, announced its Stratus Always-On Infrastructure for IIoT, a solution designed for Industrial Automation applications. Providing an always-on foundation for IIoT deployments, the Stratus solution features Stratus ftServer technology with VMware vSphere 6, as well as application monitoring and OPC integration. Stratus is helping to reduce the complexity and risk that can be associated with software defined industrial automation technologies to both OT and IT.

BP and China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) signed a production sharing contract (PSC) for shale gas exploration, development, and production in the Neijiang-Dazu block in the Sichuan Basin, China.   Witnessed by BP Group Chief Executive Bob Dudley and CNPC Chairman Wang Yilin, the contract is BP's first shale gas PSC in China, and covers an area of approximately 1,500 square kilometers.  CNPC will be operator for this project.

INOVX Solutions Inc., a global leader in advanced asset integrity management software in the oil and gas industry, has signed a new partnership agreement with Arria NLG plc, a leader in the development and deployment of Natural Language Generation ("NLG") technologies.

SAP is working with Bosch and other international partners to combine the technical standards of Germany's "Platform Industrie 4.0" and the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). The combination of the two approaches allows SAP's IoT applications to connect with intelligence at the edge and allows exchange of data between IoT application services and edge devices, like sensors.

TransCanada has inked a $13-billion (U.S.) deal with Columbia Pipeline Group that would help expand its already vast natural gas pipeline footprint, and create one of the largest regulated natural gas transmission businesses in North America.